tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38525748990039917112018-03-17T05:37:58.874-07:00Henry Covert.comThis is the closest I&#39;m likely to get to an official website - the place to announce &amp; discuss all of my current &amp; upcoming projects (comix, magazine articles &amp; columns, fiction &amp; metafiction, &amp; music), &amp; to share my thoughts on the arts, media, music, film, pop culture &amp; politics. I&#39;ll publish for the first time online older writings from hard copy magazines &amp; newspapers. I&#39;ll also post artwork, videos, or just blog away on whatever occupies my brain.Henry Coverthttps://plus.google.com/103990383640616339933noreply@blogger.comBlogger123125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3852574899003991711.post-3646585053828595292018-01-19T14:15:00.000-08:002018-01-19T15:52:44.968-08:00FLICKER STREET and Beyond?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Tx2wJg39K6o/WmJpfyqYxjI/AAAAAAAADTA/EdVr9f3Fja0Qak_8c60hC3h1uIUddMiywCLcBGAs/s1600/Ellinger.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1164" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Tx2wJg39K6o/WmJpfyqYxjI/AAAAAAAADTA/EdVr9f3Fja0Qak_8c60hC3h1uIUddMiywCLcBGAs/s320/Ellinger.jpg" width="232" /></a></div>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<span style="color: purple;">Ellinger</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">These past months since I last blogged have been interesting, on both the personal and creative fronts. I don't have much to share on the former at the moment, save that once again, I'm going through some unexpected and tumultuous changes. <i>Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose....&nbsp;</i></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">On the creative front, however, I've spent the last several months hard at work on my ongoing opus, FLICKER STREET. I've wrapped up the last long storyline I was working on, on and off, for the last three years (during the same period i was working on the 17 chapter Flicker Street backstory found on this blog), "Austerity". The follow up arc to "Austerity" is "Ellinger", which will take place, in the world of Flicker Street, during the years 2010-2014 ("Austerity" spanned 2004-2009).&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8d408OSc_9g/WmJriJB8EuI/AAAAAAAADTY/9SlQ_8_MngsAALluo2hmRq-mzRFEGev8ACLcBGAs/s1600/Anouk%2BLevage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1237" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8d408OSc_9g/WmJriJB8EuI/AAAAAAAADTY/9SlQ_8_MngsAALluo2hmRq-mzRFEGev8ACLcBGAs/s320/Anouk%2BLevage.jpg" width="247" /></a></div>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<span style="color: purple;">Anouk</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">"Ellinger" has been much easier to write, thus far, than the long, erratic, and often torturous process that was "Austerity". I've been able to pick up the lives of various denizens of the Flicker Street Universe from the prior story arc, and have been heavily inspired to create new and distinctive characters to flesh out the ongoing mythos. There was ample room for new blood in the story, as "Austerity" had ended with many longtime, and even many newer, characters, permanently dispatched. It was a clearing of deadwood in many ways - a way to decisively move the narrative forward into new areas, but also to restore certain qualities that had made this tale so enjoyable for me to write over the many years since it was first conceived.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Not only did I come up with an interesting assortment of new characters, I was also able to develop some longtime peripheral characters, some of whom had been simply too young to participate meaningfully to the ongoing storyline, but who had now come of age and could carry on another generation of the saga. And "Ellinger" is also an opportunity to bring back a few characters long absent from the canvas - some once major, some never more than minor, creations. A handful of these characters were never intended to be brought back; some of them seemingly deceased for good.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hvGm25pkuDU/WmJrH9p4ukI/AAAAAAAADTU/JyuaYIdCPLsvdvjanV4sKcG5VNlxFVsVgCLcBGAs/s1600/Kyle%2BFabricand.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1107" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hvGm25pkuDU/WmJrH9p4ukI/AAAAAAAADTU/JyuaYIdCPLsvdvjanV4sKcG5VNlxFVsVgCLcBGAs/s320/Kyle%2BFabricand.jpg" width="221" /></a></div>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<span style="color: purple;">Kyle</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif; text-align: center;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif; text-align: center;">Unlike many other fictional universes, my characters, once dead, tend to stay well and truly dead. Still, this is a universe with magick and outre phenomena at play, so, on occasion, a character can be plausibly restored - if done in a (hopefully) dramatically compelling fashion. And one of the characters returning in a huge way in the Ellinger arc wasn't permanently deceased - I'd left his fate obscure simply from lack of interest in resolving the character's fate. But an opportunity presented itself, and this long-languishing creation suddenly had not only a long overdue</span><i style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot;, sans-serif; text-align: center;"> raison d'etre</i><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif; text-align: center;">, but revealed himself to be a perfect prime mover of events across the entire arc.</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">In penning so much new material, I was eventually convinced that I should pick back up the drawing pencil after far too long and capture the likenesses of many characters that will be prominent in the new story arc. Some I'd designed previously and decided to update visually. Some characters I'd always had in my mind but could never adequately visualize. And some were brand-new characters that I had a fresh vision of, and was eager to capture it.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oLOWmbXNwSo/WmJrvSESi0I/AAAAAAAADTg/cUwrjhxhJ7Ik2h1Z3VMV_Bk7FwitifFMACLcBGAs/s1600/Esme%2Bver%2BDorn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1164" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oLOWmbXNwSo/WmJrvSESi0I/AAAAAAAADTg/cUwrjhxhJ7Ik2h1Z3VMV_Bk7FwitifFMACLcBGAs/s320/Esme%2Bver%2BDorn.jpg" width="232" /></a></div>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; <span style="color: purple;">Esme</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">So, I began a Facebook fan page, Henry Covert's Flicker Street (here:&nbsp;<a href="https://facebook.com/flickerstreet/" target="_blank">https://facebook.com/flickerstreet/</a></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">)&nbsp;</span><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">and began adding brand new character portraits there and on my Deviant Art page (<a href="https://henryzeocovert.deviantart.com/" target="_blank">https://henryzeocovert.deviantart.com/</a></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">).</span><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">&nbsp;</span><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot;, sans-serif;">My latest Flicker Street art is generally much less stylized and cartoonish than that of the last several years. There's still a fair share of loose impressionism, but more of a concentration on realism and capturing distinctive features and moods of the individual characters. I've compiled a huge file of photo references, as well as drawn (literally) on some interesting real-life acquaintances, to incarnate the key figures in the "Ellinger" arc. Seen here are some of my recent pieces, and all of them can be found at the two links cited above.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">That's it for now, but I'd like to thank a few folks who've aided and abetted me, personally and creatively, with their loyalty and support: Sean Lee Levin, Mark Baranowski, Scott Mosley, Tim McLain, Jan Takehara, Steven Levin, Rhett Thompson, Delphine Levesque Demers, Cynthia Renee, Iren Frost, Tom and Dahlia Peterson,&nbsp;</span><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">and my ex-girlfriend Stevie Lenn (I miss you).&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fG8aXqogBvs/WmJsmITpr3I/AAAAAAAADTs/EYrv-PMOpk056rEORIvXUVvbncHWMyRRwCLcBGAs/s1600/Tana%2BDisraeli%2BThorne.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1237" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fG8aXqogBvs/WmJsmITpr3I/AAAAAAAADTs/EYrv-PMOpk056rEORIvXUVvbncHWMyRRwCLcBGAs/s320/Tana%2BDisraeli%2BThorne.jpg" width="247" /></a></div>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<span style="color: purple;">Tana</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Henry Covert</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">January 19, 2018</span>Henry Coverthttps://plus.google.com/103990383640616339933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3852574899003991711.post-56912805567503292252017-05-16T19:01:00.000-07:002017-05-16T19:35:23.255-07:00Renovations and Rebirth<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CM2ms8ZHbsE/WRuuv9iF5pI/AAAAAAAADM8/pwB5LtYwA4ACZbgd8m8v-3yUJnHI7ftJQCLcB/s1600/17361665_10155230340886155_4707844081079449360_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CM2ms8ZHbsE/WRuuv9iF5pI/AAAAAAAADM8/pwB5LtYwA4ACZbgd8m8v-3yUJnHI7ftJQCLcB/s320/17361665_10155230340886155_4707844081079449360_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">My life has changed considerably since my last post here. I'm in the process of renovating this blog to reflect the changes. So many things that used to mean so much in my life are now gone, so there was really no need to keep any reminders here. I'm in the midst of a lengthy process of recovery and healing and doing my best to appreciate what I have left and to engage with life in some meaningful manner again. Those who follow me on Facebook are no doubt aware of some of the past year and a half's worth of drama and madness. There are quite a few wonderful people that I'm in touch with online (some of whom I know corporeally, as well) that have provided strong support and encouragement through the array of challenges I've faced since 2015.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Going forward (simply because the alternative is untenable), I'll be using this blog in much the same manner as in the past – to share thoughts, reviews, images, and to add to the foundations of FLICKER STREET, a project which I suppose I should finally embrace as my proverbial life's work. The major difference is that I'm now truly independent and not dependent on the creative and emotional infrastructure I enjoyed with my former spouse. The downside is the occasional fear and loneliness; the upshot is an autonomy I've never really been able to obtain before. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">That's it for now. There is more to come, including inevitable shout-outs to those cherished folks who were crucial to my continued existence. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Henry Covert </span></span><br /><br /><br />Henry Coverthttps://plus.google.com/103990383640616339933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3852574899003991711.post-3940659061084987112015-11-23T20:03:00.000-08:002015-12-18T16:53:56.704-08:00FLICKER STREET Treatment # 17: Presence<span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">A short but pivotal dispatch. Enjoy!</span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KZuqyxaOGhE/VlPf0DbB0pI/AAAAAAAADJY/mTVc7QzuMSg/s1600/Absurd%2BTentacle%2B%2526%2BSilent%2BIndigo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KZuqyxaOGhE/VlPf0DbB0pI/AAAAAAAADJY/mTVc7QzuMSg/s400/Absurd%2BTentacle%2B%2526%2BSilent%2BIndigo.jpg" width="305" /></a></div><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">FLICKER STREET Treatment # 17: Presence</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">I. 1979 Revisited</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">1979 was a busy year for the various personalities that had fallen under the rubric of the Aggregate. Ben Renova came out of retirement as Wurm to stop Carnifex from looting the Renova Savings &amp; Loan main branch. He was not able to ward off Carnifex alone, especially after Urias came and teleported the money and holdings away. Urias did not need the money; he needed to humiliate a hero and hurl the gauntlet for the next big move against the Aggregate. The Damnation Brigade were the ones to make that bid, with Damnation members new and old aligned against the Aggregate. Wurm rejoined the Aggregate. He thought it was well overdue for Carnifex and Urias to be taken down. For good.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Milo Majestyk's mob (now calling themselves 'The Machine' after Skull's nascent foray into organized crime) were buying more city officials and spreading corruption throughout Hallmark. Under the aegis of Arch-Priest Urias, the new Damnation Brigade met up with Majestyk and worked out a plan for the Brigade to take down the mutual adversaries of the two groups. The new Brigade was led by Urias, tired of being behind the scenes and eager to crush the spiritis of his foes and glory in the heady draught of victory. Beside him was his on and off partner Carnifex; Urias' familiar, the undead Pallor; Solomon Vossius the Tormenter; TSD subject Alphonse Marins, also known as the incredibly strong Mexican wrestler El Perro de Guerra (the Dog of War); Cal Thorne aka Exterminans the Death Walker, in one of his premiere missions; and Scottish telepath/ telekinetic Roland Mallory, a TSD Recombinant experimented on by Donal Rykards.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Cary believed the time had to rebuild the Aggregate HQ beneath Bradcroft Manor. This space was to be the first HQ Compound. The Compounds were originally suggested by Thomas Ledge as a way to capture the team's foes and keep them imprisoned as needed. The Compounds would also be places for Aggregate members to live so that they and their families could feel safe. All of this meant that a self-governing system had to be put into effect. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">The Compounds would function as co-ops/ communes. Ledge didn't like the socialist overtones yet most of his suggestions were fed into the layout though he was rather ungrateful. Euphrates Straw laid out the entire map and schema for the Compounds. Construction was hired clandestinely; it was carried out by Serafinians, who were paid well by Bradcroft and Renova. This also chafed Ledge, but by 1980, Ledge had well worn out his welcome with Bradcroft &amp; co, so they chafed each other daily. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Cary sought many new members for the group, the last time he would do so. Caulder Gaunt agreed to join the Aggregate, as did Brother Zodiac at long last. Cary found a pocket of ex-cons who'd been injected with TSD and were in REACT custody: Empress Moth, Necrotica, Karibou, and Arc-Welder (More specific biographical details on these four to follow in upcoming segments). These were located for the group by the White Archer, who felt it a wise idea to allow Bradcroft and company to train the “talent” and the FSO's job was to exploit that talent for its own group afterward.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">II. The Way They Were: The Last Days of The Original Freedom Squad </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">And so we return at long last to the so-called Freedom Squad, busy on foreign missions for months and retraining after the near-fatal Deomond/ Solus affair. In reconstructing their bodies, REACT subtly manipulated their minds to pledge obedience to REACT. Only the mind of John Gauvin, aka Wrath, rejected the mental invasiveness. This was because Gauvin had been a TSD trial volunteer; his only gift received by the treatment was complete immunity from telepathic invasiveness (including surgical and genetic engineering techniques). His brain was like a steel forge and could not be penetrated. Phileas Caleb realized this and kept very close tabs on Wrath. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Freedom Squad Ops (or FSO), as it was most commonly referred to in those days, was the victim of another set-up deal between Mob enterprise and Skull tech. The result was known affectionately as the “OBIT Gang” and was unfortunately led by the long-missing Princesa Verde of the Aggregate, Cedric Lykos' former lover. Under her auspices were: Garnet and Cynosure, both rejected by Bradcroft and co.; the “Solar Princess” and hippie lightbender Sunchild; the Vietnamese shape-shifting Tran; Anaximander Zayan's daughter Atheru, aka Soulfish; and the armored Terrapin, who had gotten to be good pals with Convy Lee Sutch (Cynosure).</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">The Freedom Squad lineup itself had morphed with the fallout of the Deomond/ Solus incident and rejuvenation of the team. With Ursulin AWOL in space and Solus and the second Duellist dead, the group amounted to Liberty Lord, Troubleshooter, White Archer, Dr E, Flare, a recent acquisition Dart (the first female member), and brand-new recruit, a powerful Bible-thumper calling himself Vigil. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">So the rejuvenated Freedom Squad took on the OBIT Gang once in early 1980. The very outre group took FSO by surprise and scrambled their usual group dynamic. Still Freedom Squad's raw power looked to be winning out when Sunchild turned Dr E's power upon himself; fortunately there were no casualties. Soulfish had the dubious honor of snapping Dart's neck but succumbed to Dart's weaponry; she lived but in a comatose state. Garnet and Cynosure almost took out the White Archer. But it was Vigil, who stepped in with his array of Recombinant abilities (to be discussed in future accounts) and brutally dispersed OBIT. The group fled, much to Skull's chagrin.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">III. The Trinity</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Alec continued to feel tense around Kicia now that Brother Zodiac was at last a member of the Aggregate. Alec, his mind at peace regarding the Marchessa, felt that Kicia was his true love, hence he was somewhat awkward with her, despite what they had shared in the past. Finally Kicia made a move, and Cowan, having no respect for Brother Zodiac or for K</span><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">icia's love for BZ, succumbed once more to Ms. Blessing's considerable charms. Trevor was hardly faithful to Kicia anyway, having bedded Sunchild before her enlistment in the OBIT Gang when she was merely a fixture of the Flicker Street scene, as well as Empress Moth, one of the newbies to the Aggregate. Even Ghost Cat, who Caulder Gaunt had been professing love to for years, seemed drawn into Novembre's spell. Gaunt confronted Mei-Chan about the situation, and she graciously put aside her infatuation with Zodiac to allow Gaunt to “woo her properly” (his words).</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Alec took a trip to New Orleans with Lykos to find info on the “Grey Messiah”, but the paper trail only reached back to 1955. Meanwhile, Cotton confronted Zodiac about his lifestyle and warned the bohemian lothario that his days in the Aggregate may be numbered, especially if he was quite literally sleeping with the enemy. On a drunken night in February 1980, Alec and Lykos confronted BZ about all of this, and suggested Zodiac go join the OBIT Gang where he might be more comfortable, and where no one in the Aggregate would have any compunctions against wiping the floor with him, even though the Brother's power levels lied somewhere Dr E's and that of the Absurd Tentacle.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Zodiac rebuffed Alec and Cedric, who had become close friends of late, and taunted Alec with braggadocio regarding Kicia. Trevor obviously had not realized that Kicia and Cowan had recently been intimate. Novembre apparently did not yet know that Kicia had just discovered that she was pregnant and wasn't sure of the paternity. Alec did know that Kicia was expecting and implored her to get a blood test. Lykos, in the meantime, had developed a rather involved theory regarding Brother Zodiac. He went to Straw and Cary with his fears. He had come to believe that Vaikuntha had avatars in Hallmark and that “Trevor Novembre” was one of them. Unfortunately, only the sword and amulet of the Black Cabal could detect a Presence in one of its avatar forms, and, even then, a Presence could make itself undetectable by most forms of magick.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">It would explain much, Cary and Euphrates agreed. The three men (Bradcroft, Straw, Lykos) opted to go about their business with Zodiac, hoping he didn't suspect that they suspected him. They didn't tell Alec right away for fear of a major set-to with Zodiac. Lykos pointed out that with Caulder Gaunt's past, Gaunt's true identity also came into question. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">One night in March 1980 a restless Zodiac left his room and Kicia sleeping. He had just learned that he may be a father and that Alec Duarte was his true rival for Kicia and the baby. Zodiac encountered Caulder Gaunt in the Bradcroft Manor courtyard. Zodiac drew upon a fearsome wellspring of mystical energy and absorbed the protesting Gaunt into himself down to the molecular level. He then mused to himself, “Only one more and we shall be complete..” Brother Zodiac then reached out with his far-ranging mind and located the “one more”. He was scarcely surprised at the identity of the other piece of the unholy trinity. As Caulder Gaunt had emerged 25 years earlier a total amnesiac, and Zodiac had always been guarded about his past save for his claims to be Trevor Novembre of 1960s New Orleans, the third of this trinity emerged in 1954 with a whole set of false memories, memories about to be dispelled once and for all, along with the entire being that housed those memories – all subsumed by Brother Zodiac.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">And so we return to Grey Parminter's desperate summoning of Vaikuntha in 1954, which at long last bore cosmic fruit. Vaikuntha had returned to this plane after a millenium but could only do this by incarnating himself into avatars – an ability he used for millenia in the past to walk among men. Vaikuntha would erase his memories or program himself with elaborate false memories in an elaborate spell that even altered the memories of those around him, to “recall” the avatar's past human interactions. Such was the power and intricacy of an avatar working that Cary and Ashton Bradcroft studied it to master it just in case.... for the avatar, as we have seen, is untraceable by any magick perception on Earth. It is the ultimate way for a mage or Presence to walk among the populace of Earth, human or Exodesian alike, and work for good or ill undetected. Its aim could gleaned from its conscious mind if made aware, but a subconscious drive could be guiding it so that when the cosmics were right, the seed of the being who broke apart into avatars would “awaken”.. and seek out its other selves, encased in flesh ignorant of its making. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Brother Zodiac kidnapped Kicia's mother Acacia and taunted Cary, Straw, Duarte, and Lykos. Ghost Cat was despondent that Gaunt had apparently abandoned her after such a lengthy and ardent pursuit. Kicia went to Alec and stated that she chose him over BZ. They made love, with Alec knowing any moment Acacia could be a dead woman. They were interrupted by Cotton Suede, Thomas Ledge, and Konchuman, who rendezvoused with Zodiac and tried to divine just what it was that they could do so that Zodiac would free Kicia's mother. Zodiac insisted on seeing only Duarte, Straw, Bradcroft, and Lykos. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">But the working had yet to conclude. Even as Zodiac was physically changing, he announced that they shall all be one family, and gestured, drawing Kicia into the maelstrom emanating from the being was once was a trinity and now is one. Alec held onto her hand until her body wilted and dissolved. Alec cried out as the woman he loved and her unborn child (which was Zodiac's, not Alec's) were consumed by the reborn Presence. And so Vaikuntha awoke, a dead ringer for the being that Gaunt and Zodiac had been dreaming of. Euphrates Straw was at a loss; he had never before encountered a Presence( few had). Vaikuntha let loose a burst of energy from his third eye, frying Straw where he stood, even as Vaikuntha himself was blasted from behind from the now cognizant Shadow Baron, flanked by Lykos. Cary was too late, however, and Euphrates Straw's remains crumpled to the ground. Vaikuntha announced his retreat and that this time around, Earth would be his to pleasure himself with however he saw fit. He disappeared, and a heartbroken Alec and his allies searched for find something to house Straw's remains.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">IV. Vaikuntha Rising</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">The Aggregate regrouped. A ceremony was held in which the entire current team was there – Bradcroft, Cowan, Lykos, Ledge, Cotton, Konchuman, Wurm, Ghost Cat, Corona, Myrmidon, Empress Moth, Necrotica, Karibou, and Arc-Welder - to pay respects to Straw and acknowledge the other two fallen members, though this latter idea of Bradcroft's, in the interest of ceremony and magnanimity, enraged several members. They grumbled that Gaunt and Zodiac did little during their time with the team save plot and ploy against them. As Thomas Ledge put it: “Ya don't honor a man like Straw beside two pieces of shit who were planning our destruction the whole freakin' time – whether they knew it or not.” Cotton very vocally agreed, as did Alec (a rare instance where he and Thomas were in sync) and so a separate acknowledgment for the two avatars was held a week after Straw's elaborate funeral.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Straw's teammates and his retinue from outside the team, solemnly honored this most amazing of men. Straw's heirs attended: his lover Octavia Flay and her child by Euphrates, Darius Flay (b. 1975); his estranged widow Artemis Clancey (b. 1948) and her child by Euphrates, Zachariah “Zack” Straw (b. 1970); as well as the surviving members of the interconnected Clancey, Reale, Torrance, and Flay families.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">This left the Aggregate with only one original member in its 16 year existence - the Shadow Baron, and he shouldered the blame for all that had occurred. He knew that the group, especially with so many young and lesser experienced members, needed as much help as they could get. Knowing they will refuse to help him, Cary dismissed approaching the Freedom Squad offhand, and concentrated on two extremely powerful potential allies: Orphee deLander, the Absurd Tentacle, and his lover Silent Indigo, Cary's niece. Bradcroft also tried to contact his own brother to no avail. Finally, he approached Javier's sect, who agreed to help. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Orphee immediately attempted to take control of the situation though Cary and Javier were far more well-versed in sorcery. After months planning by this uneasy alliance without any incident, Vaikuntha struck the Aggregate's nascent first Compound. Without warning, the mad god decided to merely destroy his primary foes all at once, making a statement to the Freedom Squad or any other gifted individuals looking to take him down. His main target, however, was Cary Bradcroft's knowledge of the Black Cabal talisman.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Gathered was the same line-up present at Straw's memorial – perhaps the most formidable Aggregate yet assembled. Also present were the Absurd Tentacle, Silent Indigo, and Javier.&nbsp;</span><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Vaikuntha announced, “Millenia I have slept, and dreamt beyond the pale... for the day I wake and unleash the destroyer force on all mankind.” In one mighty wave Vaikuntha annhilated Silent Indigo, Karibou, and the Empress Moth, critically injuring Corona and Wurm in the process. Ghost Cat, Cary's replacement as field commander for Euphrates, attempted to use advanced martial arts on Vaikuntha while Javier and Bradcroft hurled arcane forces at him, and Thomas and Lykos attempted to knock him down with brute force. Alec and Stephen Bartholemew simply shot at him. All proved ineffectual until Orphee managed to physically wrestle the six-armed god to the ground, using all of his psychokinetic power to augment his strength. Brimming with rage over Indigo's death, he brought to bear all he had against the daemonic Presence.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">But then Vaikuntha unleashed his eldritch energies and the Absurd Tentacle slowly dissipated into a small puttlylike blob before evaporating altogether. “Enough!!” screamed a muffled voice. From out of the dust strode a tall man, dressed head to toe in black and grey and wearing a mask concealing his entire face, even his eyes. A bejeweled amulet gleamed about his neck, and he wielded an ornate blade. Was this the one-man embodiment of the force that laid Vaikuntha low 1000 years ago?</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">The oblique gentlemen swiftly moved in on Vaikuntha, fearless. He proclaimed: “Tis time once more the Balance is struck, and the Black Cabal shall make it so. I am he you have dreaded in the dreams of a millenium sleeping in the outer planes. And now you shall sleep again. I banish the Presence who would rule all Creation; I drive it back, back – into the fetid pit from which it crawled - a slug who dared believe it was God”.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Vaikuntha raised several of his arms as if to cast a spell, whispering only “Dharma..”, but the Black Cabal struck him in the heart with his blade as his amulet glistened. An all-consuming light envelopes the destined foes, and then was abruptly snuffed out. It would be safe to say that the survivors of this skirmish with Vaikuntha all stood in a state of complete shock. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">They quickly reconnoitered to garner medical attention for those who needed it and to mourn their lost comrades. The year 1980 closed on a somber note for the Aggregate, and with many more questions raised than answered by the year's events.</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Welcome to Flicker Street!</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Henry Covert</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">November 23, 2015</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Thanx to all of my Facebook friends, especially those who are reading.</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">No thanx to Baal, no thanx to Rowan, no thanx to Wolfie.</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Flicker Street, all images, characters, and story elements are Copyright (c) 2015 George Henry Smathers Jr.</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Henry Coverthttps://plus.google.com/103990383640616339933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3852574899003991711.post-7033996849086503222015-11-17T17:01:00.002-08:002015-11-17T17:46:00.594-08:00Further Thoughts on FLICKER STREET (Slight Return)<span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><b>Further Thoughts on FLICKER STREET (Slight Return)</b></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">I warned you I'd be back. So, here I sit, pondering the direction and shape Flicker Street is taking. Treatment #17 - "Presence" - is more than halfway done, even through fighting a nasty writer's block of sorts this past week. Extensive notes for #s 18 and 19 (Titles TBA) are starting to assume a manageable shape. Truthfully, these chapters have been the most crucial to surmount - being that they segue into a sharp tonal shift from past treatments. "Presence" is a joy to write, but also a bit of a bear. I have to keep all the arcs and tangents carefully juggled lest one fall, and rend asunder the gossamer loom on which I weave the world of Flicker Street.</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">I'm not sure if Flicker Street is quite ready for a debut proper. A doctor of mine asked me today, "What's this book you're writing all the time?" I answered that it was like a bible, or sourcebook, or whatever they call it nowadays, for a projected piece of serial fiction - comix, prose, or television. It lays out the characters and the world, the backstory, etc. - at least that's how I explained it to my doctor. Makes sense to me, though it may not have to her.</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">"Presence" will be the crucial chapter of the last few, wrapping up with some (hopefully) mind-bending surprises that will make clear the arcs from # 14 onward. Even I've been shocked at my characters' revelations - I love it when that happens. It just seems to be the way things shake out for me when I'm on a roll.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Well, back to work, as Uncle Bill my moon brother admonishes me to do when I'm lagging behind on this project. As usual, many thanx are due:</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">To Sean Lee Levin, Jan Takehara, Bill White, "The Marksman", Michael T Jones, Kelley Widmeyer, Ryli Morgan, Lori Jones, S.a. Mosley, Shawn Michael Vogt, Morgan Overcash, Leslie K Maitri, and all those helping me keep moving, albeit sluggishly at times. I love you all!!</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">For ongoing eternal inspiration: Philip Jose Farmer, William S Burroughs, JG Ballard, Steve Gerber, Grant Morrison, Douglas Marland, James A Michener, L Frank Baum, V. Vale, Osamu Tezuka, Don McGregor, Roy Thomas, Peter Milligan, Jack Kirby, Win Scott Eckert, and many more....</span><br /><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">PS Wait'll you meet one of the next new characters I have in store for you: Reverend Tim Bollin of the WOGG Ministries (Word Of God's Glory, of course). If you grew up in the Bible Belt as I did, he'll be a very familiar polygot of various unsavory "TV criminals"...</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Henry Covert</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">November 17, 2015</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Flicker Street, all images, characters, and story elements are Copyright (c) 2015 George Henry Smathers Jr.</span>Henry Coverthttps://plus.google.com/103990383640616339933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3852574899003991711.post-88045551675042157182015-11-05T16:20:00.001-08:002015-11-06T11:58:09.552-08:00FLICKER STREET: A Brief Respite<span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><b>FLICKER STREET: A Brief Respite&nbsp;</b></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">I wanted to share a few thoughts and wax introspective on Flicker Street, my ongoing series of treatments for a potential comix series. To those few souls reading this, many thanks! I deeply appreciate your comments, feedback, views, and shares. At times it seems I'm building this world in a proverbial vacuum; perhaps I am. This has been labor of love: 30&nbsp;+ years of love, and now, days and nights of labor. The labor comes in condensing a mammoth, living breathing organism into manageable chunks for the reader to digest. This has been difficult.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Over the years there have been long, deep holes left in the overarching narrative, as I plowed ahead with what felt right - an ongoing catharsis that was being composed solely for me, not any prospective readers. I am attempting to plug those holes and streamline the narrative leading to the story I most want to tell ultimately. I've always felt that there was (dreaded word here) commercial potential for Flicker Street; that is, I've long believed that its target audience(s) would enjoy FS if they were merely exposed to it. But navigating through the dense underbrush of events that serve as the substratum for the FS saga 'proper' could be problematic to any new readers. The main story, beginning with '1987', was going to be convoluted enough; to grok the particulars and ground rules, so to speak, inherent in the demi-epic backstory, may be too much to ask of an audience.</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">These are matters I still grapple with as I plunge ever onward, recounting in these treatments all (or most) of the pertinent info needed to arm the reader with the sound foundation needed to enrich and hopefully enhance their experience of FS proper. Consider these treatments prequels to a story yet to unfold; snapshots of my attempt to world build.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Now that I'm closer to the beginning than the end of the FS "prequels", I would like to share with any potential readers that with '1987' onward, there will be strong tonal shift in narrative. Certain concerns from the treatments may not be as useful in the saga proper. Superheros, mystery men, and pulp style action gives way to a more complex, character-based occult soap opera of sorts. This is not to say there won't be plenty of action, sex, violence, and other "exploitable" elements, but these facets will be woven in and out of the larger loom of intrigue, romance, paranoia, and sci-fi horror ahead.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">As further thoughts on the nature of my work strike me, I may report back here. If I don't (or if I do), I look forward to sharing Treatments #s 17 and 18, currently being constructed. I am still unsure of the final number of chapters, but it will be between 20 and 25 in all likelihood.</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Thanx again for reading,</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Henry Covert</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">November 5, 2015</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Copyright (c) 2015 George Henry Smathers Jr.</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span>Henry Coverthttps://plus.google.com/103990383640616339933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3852574899003991711.post-4999635153873100032015-10-30T20:29:00.000-07:002015-11-05T15:37:32.799-08:00FLICKER STREET Treatment # 16: Sojourn<span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Shorter but no less eventful. Enjoy!</span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-b2_cGFw1xQ4/VjQ1QogKwOI/AAAAAAAADJE/q93AL7jp7ac/s1600/Black%2BCabal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-b2_cGFw1xQ4/VjQ1QogKwOI/AAAAAAAADJE/q93AL7jp7ac/s400/Black%2BCabal.jpg" width="248" /></a></div><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">FLICKER STREET Treatment # 16 – Sojourn</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">I. The Case of Caulder Gaunt and Ethan Byron</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">The peculiar case of the man called Caulder Gaunt was almost one case of spontaneous generation – he was seemingly born fullblown: an adult without parents or a past. But some force wished Gaunt to find his way; to retrace the steps of memory that had been wiped clean. Caulder awoke in Hallmark, in January 1955, wearing a costly suit and bearing a wallet with ID (which gave his birthdate as January 1, 1925) and thousands of dollars in cash. Instinctively, he sought out a bank and soon had some sense of security. One night, he decided to drown his sorrow and insecurity at the Lucifer Club. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">There, he took a an immediate shine to the Indian belly dancer Acacia Blessing. He was mesmerized by her. When they were introduced by the club owner Javier, there was an immediate bond. But there another man enamored of Acacia, the businessman Ethan Byron.&nbsp;</span><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Ethan had a troubled marriage but his wife was about to have their first child. Ethan (b. 1920) had only been married for two years to Virginia de Ruyter (b. 1925) and the couple had suffered a miscarriage. They had high hopes for their next attempt at childbearing.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Acacia was married to Junius G. Hand at this time, though to date no one had told Junius that his son by Erszebet Singer survived and was adopted. Junius was overjoyed over Acacia's pregnancy, and did what he could to ward off the wolves at the club. Soon, however, she was showing and stopped dancing until after the child's birth. So all Ethan and Caulder could do was drink and fantasize over the lovely Acacia.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Virginia de Ruyter was the paternal granddaughter of the much-discussed Ananias de Ruyter, one of the founding fathers of Hallmark. Virginia's father, Victor de Ruyter, was something of a criminal, involved in all manner of vice and heavily entwined with the local mob. This made his daughter into something of a crusader for social causes, which was very compatible with husband Ethan's aspirations to one day become District Attorney and truly clean up Hallmark. But Ethan, unlike his bride's family, was not an heir to millions and his dreams seemed all but unattainable. That is, until he made the acquaintance of the mysterious Caulder Gaunt.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Caulder needed a job; Ethan needed a friend. And so, as fate would have it, Ethan brought Gaunt in at an entry level position at OrDeR Enterprises. Ethan had an uncanny knack for spotting sound investments and was soon rising at OrDeR. Ethan's son by Virginia, Clayton Ethan “Clay” Byron was born in early 1956, and his presence helped cool some of the friction between his parents. But in 1958, Junius and Acacia divorced but Acacia stayed at the club at Javier's urging. Ethan and Virginia had been arguing over money; Ethan soon had a drunken affair with Acacia. Caulder advised him to hide this from his wife, which he did, and definitely from the public as he had won the post of Hallmark District Attorney. Ethan and his wife were soon high on Tony Duarte's hit list. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">II. The Chinese Connection</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">In 1963 Shun Ti the undisputed female master of Feng Qi (and originally the Omegan called Ish) was slain by Kith M'Nali, the “Black Tamerlane”. Kith was found out and he and the Black Skull Society, tolerated in Feng Qi for many years, were exiled permanently. Kith had been anticipating this for decades, and so fled to a new headquarters in Japan that he had set up in case of such an occurrence. He also had a secondary HQ in America that he had begun putting together as early as the 1850s. He had created an underground railroad for slaves in America. After they were free, many slaves indebted to him did his bidding, as did their descendants. Ironically, working for Kith M'Nali was akin to slavery itself. The man born Abasse Mathabane learned little from the struggles of his people; personal power was ultimately his sole objective. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Feng Qi was intended by Shun Ti to be ultimately inherited by Kar-Fai Liao, whose father Tsun-Lun was Shuni-Ti's son and her greatest disciple. Kong had slain Tsun-Lun as he had Tsun-Lun's father The Claimer and took his title for himself. With Kong now apparently deceased Kith was running out of allies and Shun Ti was running low on heirs. Ko Sui-Li (b. 1920), mother of Kar-Fai, took the reigns of Feng-Qi, but was constantly plotted against by her sons Li-Ang Liao and Zhey Liao. Zhey had always been loyal to Kong, and advised Li-Ang to build on the power vacuum left by Kong and Kith. Li-Ang envisioned himself an overlord in the manner of Kong, with the world's vice in his lethal grasp. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Sui-Li reorganized Feng Qi, and made her son its overlord. Under Kar-Fai's aegis, Archimedes Ko, son of Bram Vallard, was largely in charge of overseeing the temples and Solacium. Ko was young, but had been a monk almost since his birth (in 1943) and was a master of martial arts and Zen principals. His twin sister Mei-Chan Ko, the “Ghost Cat”, had also trained since birth. Kar-Fai needed the fresh blood, according to Sui-Li, as Kar-Fai spent much of his time ruminating on thoughts of vengeance against Kith for slaying his grandmother Shun Ti. Sui-Li refused to let her son turn Feng-Qi into an engine of destruction; Kith had tried and failed many times to do just that. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">In 1964, Ethan and Virginia Byron were slain by Marco Allegretti. Under the advice of Bram Vallard (who that year co-founded the Aggregate), Archimedes offered to take in the eight year old Clay Byron. Kar-Fai felt he could mold Clay (pun unintended) into the instrument of vengeance he'd been yearning for. Not surprisingly, the Byrons left their fortune to Clay, but made Caulder Gaunt the trustee of the estate. Gaunt had power of attorney for the Byrons. Ethan had come to see Gaunt as a brother, and trusted him completely. Gaunt naturally agreed, but he asked one thing of Ko: that he be allowed to train alongside Clay at the monastery. Kar-Fai trusted his sincerity and felt bringing in those of different races, as Shun Ti had done, honored the original Pan-Asian creeds that Kith corrupted.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Most surprising to all was one other child who wished to train at Feng Qi: his name was Clive and his mother Jerusha Dharma brought him to the monastery she had heard so much about over the years. She was with Myrus T Fellbane, now her fiance (much to Clive's chagrin). They brought with them something Clive's father had entrusted Jerusha with – a sword and amulet that were said to be 1000 years old and once drove the vile Presence Vaikuntha from this plane of existence. Jerusha felt that Feng Qi would be the safest place on Earth to house the items, just as she felt that Exodesia would be the most unsafe place imaginable. These items were forged by a Hindu cult called the Black Cabal; legend had it that if one man was ever worthy of bearing sword and amulet, he would inherit the powers of the entire Black Cabal. Jerusha wished this for her son. Her motives were not exactly pure however; she harbored a deep resentment of Clive Dharma's father, Cary Bradcroft, for seemingly abandoning her in his quest for power in Exodesia. She felt Clive could be molded, as Kar-Fai was molding Clay Byron, into an instrument of vengeance. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Fellbane, however, had other plans. He desired the power of the Black Cabal for himself, and had schemed for nine years to be in the position to claim it. Fellbane asked Kar-Fai Liao if he could train Fellbane in some of his mystic arts. Kar-Fai was offended that such an interloper would see the training at Feng Qi as something so casual and superficial. Fellbane caused a mild uproar with his commentary following Kar-Fai's refusal to train him. Kar-Fai lost control and with one blow killed Fellbane.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Jerusha was shocked and asked to speak to Sui-Li Ko alone. Sui-Li felt Kar-Fai's action was rash and out of control, but she admonished Jerusha that Fellbane brought a potential evil with him to Feng Qi, and that was not to be tolerated. Jerusha confided that Fellbane had cast a spell nine years prior so that she and her son could not be found by Cary Bradcroft. Sui-Li was surprised, as the Shadow Baron had become well-known in mystic circles for his power and knowledge, though he'd not yet wrought the good he went on to accomplish leading the Aggregate. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Jerusha understood, but asked that Kar-Fai weave a new spell protecting her and Clive from Bradcroft. Kar-Fai did so, and added the caveat that only one who wielded the sword and amulet of the Black Cabal could banish the spell. All was made well for the time being. Jerusha was invited to stay at Feng Qi to live, and she agreed. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Thus, Clive Dharma, Clay Byron, and Caulder Gaunt trained together with Mei-Chan Ko under Archimedes for nine years. Caulder fell deeply in love with Mei-Chan but feared upsetting their dynamic at the monastery by sharing his feelings. Gaunt was a confident man, but he was troubled, as he still had no memory of his life before 1955. By 1975, Gaunt and his young fellow pupils had excelled at their training. But Clay Byron desired a slightly different path. He announced that he was leaving for training in Libania under the Marchessa. The others chose to remain in Feng Qi for a bit longer. Clay embarked, and Kar-Fai wished him well, and dubbed him “Sojourner” for his restless spirit. Clay promised Clive and Gaunt that he'd meet them again one day. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">The one saddest about Clay leaving was Kar-Fai's young son, Jun-Kim Liao (or June Kim, born 1967) who saw Clay and Clive as older brothers and Gaunt as an uncle. Jun-Kim was the offspring of the marriage of Kar-Fai to Colleen Soh (b. 1940), a half-Irish, half-Korean whose father Kim Park Soh (b. 1918) had lived at Feng Qi in the 1930s and 1940s and became an agent of Bram Vallard via his connection to Feng Qi, where he had trained in the 1920s. Kim Park's other daughter, Lerby Soh, married Vallard's son Randolph Hoxworth (b.1947) and the couple settled in Hallmark and had three daughters: Betsy, Lerby, and Jill, all of whom would one day meet their cousin Jun-Kim, whose importance to this narrative will grow as we move along. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">III. Lucifer Revisited</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Alec Duarte first encountered Kicia Marie Blessing in 1971 when he came to Hallmark to finish off his father Tony Duarte and Tony's partner and lover Marco Allegretti. He set up his place of operation in a Hotel 6 and that evening, after staking out Tony's mansion, dropped in at the Lucifer Club for a few drinks and to see naked girls dance. He was sexually frustrated due to his time with Mariposa Marisol. Celibacy was getting old for him. Kicia was a stunning dancer at the club who caught his eye immediately. He soon learned after a table dance from Kicia that she was only 15 years old. The pimp Diggs Reale who, at that time, owned and ran the Lucifer Club had managed to persuade Kicia to start stripping at 14. He roped her in via her mother Acacia, who Javier, the founder of the club, enlisted as a dancer after he met her by chance on a trip to India in 1954. One year later, Kicia was born, the offspring of Acacia's marriage to Black Torpedo Ray, whom she had wed one week after meeting him.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Acacia knew her daughter looked much older than her age, and she knew the next stop on the illusory highway to fame and riches offered by Diggs was a life of turning tricks. In 1971, Kicia's father was in prison, framed by Diggs and Eli Singer; he and Acacia had divorced in 1958. Alec was the first man Kicia had danced for that didn't immediately attempt to score with her. She was fascinated by this 23 year old loner with pale blue eyes and a swanky moustache and soul patch. At the end of the evening, Alec bid her a fond farewell and she gave him her phone number. He said he didn't know how much longer he'd be in Hallmark; only that he would be back and look her up – and hoped she'd be in school by then. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Three years later, Duarte returned to Hallmark for phase two of the Marchessa's three mandates. He decided impulsively to make it a stealth mission, mainly to get a job in Hallmark and establish a dual ID so that he could move freely as Cowan, whose cowl he first donned on this trip (the cowl would have many configurations over the years). But above all, he stayed around to see Kicia Blessing. The job he chose was as a cab driver; he was utterly fascinated by taxi driving. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Alec began hanging out at the club for a few weeks, getting to know Kicia's father; they became fast friends. Ray approved of Alec, and Alec alone, as a match for his now 19 year old daughter. Acacia had returned to India for a time, but Ray wanted her back at the club, their differences aside. Alec made some young friends who frequented the Lucifer Club, much to their families' dismay. From Gossingham, he met Shirley Townshend Drake and her husband Shelby and son Lance. Lance was only six years old and already craved heavy metal and occult imagery; his favorite group was the infamous White Rabbit, led by the rowdy Hasty Greenhalgh, and his favorite shop was Bradcroft LTD. Lance loved Alec; Alec wasn't sure what to make of this kid but appreciated the cameraderie. Lance's uncle was preparing to open a comic book store in Hallmark called Origins, but for now, was holding mini-conventions at Northland Mall in upper Hallmark. H. Sidney Drake looked down on his relatives, especially nephew Lance's proclivities as Sidney was a devout born again Christian.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">One of Alec's drinking buddies was a fellow cabbie at Zenith Cab: Renee Pointier, a French immigrant who was in her 30s and certainly an alcoholic. She and Alec had a few drunken nights of wanton sex, but he felt he was getting far off track from his fixation on Kicia, not to mention his impossible yearnings for his teacher the Marchessa. Renee dug Alec a good bit, and confronted him over Kicia. He made his feelings apparent, and Renee soon left Alec, Zenith, and Hallmark – at least for a good 10 years. Her replacement became Alec's “sidekick” for the duration of his time cruising Flicker Street for fares: a 16 year old cabbie-in-training named Hobie T Reale, Diggs' nephew. Alec taught Hobie some martial arts and Hobie referred to Alec as “teacher”. Alec said he was on a mission, Hobie could not come along, and when next he came to Hallmark, he would give Hobie a proper training. The two would often smoke ganja and ruminate on the nature of the universe, which Alec would soon be doing in a whole different venue.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">In the midst of all this, Alec never wavered in using his tightness with Ray to see Kicia every chance he got. They had a sweet and tender dynamic that belied the violence and vice surrounding them. Alec practiced using his hard-won skills to hit the mob, and was only marginally successful. Finally, the time came for his mission: to infiltrate Javier's Order of Cosmic Emptiness. He managed to kill guest speaker Antioch Moldor, a powerful warlock and founder of the Aggregate analog group the Damnation Brigade. Javier let Cowan escape and was intrigued by him. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">It had been two months of what was supposed to be a two week mission. Alec went to see Kicia one night when she was home alone studying (Ray got her back in school) and Ray was clubbing. They finally had “The Talk” (capital “T”, capital “T”), which was what Alec called the awkward crossroads a potential couple invariably arrived at, in order to decide to be a couple or not. Alec tried to spill his guts, and was doing okay when Kicia savagely seduced Duarte. She had wanted him for so long she was boiling over. After an hour of oftimes tender, oftimes tempestuous coupling, the two lay in bed and finished “The Talk”. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Kicia didn't think they would work unless Alec took her with him when he left and unless Alec got over his infatuation with his teacher. Neither seemed possible, and for the first time that he could remember, Alec Duarte – Cowan – cried. He said goodbye to Kicia and expressed that should their paths cross again, maybe they could be together. Kicia found this unlikely and said some soul-crushing things to Alec to disabuse him of this notion and get him to leave before she, too, lost it. And thus, Alec returned to the Marchessa for three more years, and consummated their attraction. Kicia dropped out of school and embraced the Flicker Street bohemian crowd, the hub of Hallmark's outcasts, freaks, loners, artists, and aesthetes. There she met the enigmatic Brother Zodiac and the two began a passionate affair filled with romance and music and – other, darker things to be discussed shortly.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">IV. Sojourner's Solacium</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Sojourner made it to the Marchessa's Solacium in Libania in 1975.He submitted himself for training, and was accepted. He met Cowan for the first time, having no idea yet that Alec avenged Clay's family's deaths. Duarte helped Sojourner adjust to the different approach of Marchessa's Solacium. Clay responded well to his new teacher. Clay was intrigued by the relationship Libania and FOPA had with Serafinia. While at the Solacium, he met Redmund Jeffrey, an African-American spy for REACT posing as a FOPA double agent. Jeffrey was there to aid in destabilizing relations ever further with Serafinia. Ironically he married a Serafinia native and had two daughters they raised in Serafinia: Laura (b. 1956) and Ophelia (b. 1958). Clay met and fell for Laura Jeffrey. With Redmund's permission they wed.</span>&nbsp;</span><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Redmund despised Byron, however, and plotted to eliminate him without provoking the Marchessa.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Laura was soon pregnant, and, in her eighth month, she was killed by an explosion set at the Solacium by Redmund and meant to be blamed on the Serafinians. Laura's child, to be named Jeffrey Byron, survived however, and Redmund gave the baby to Ophelia and demanded she and her husband Charles Mourning raise the child as their own back home in the U.S. with Redmund's aging mother, the baby's great-grandmother, Cecilia Jeffrey. The child was born in June 1976 and was named Michelito Mourning. It would be many years before the truth of his parentage was outed. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Redmund's own wife Unocita Quonquonero tried to kill him for using her and playing with their family's lives. Redmund beat her badly and she confided in Clay that she contemplated suicide daily. She threatened to tell Clay the truth about why the Mournings left South America so suddenly after Laura's death. Redmund killed her, making it look like suicide. Unocita's brother Rajael cried out for Redmund's blood. Alec Duarte knew it was time for the monster Redmund Jeffrey to pay the price, and so he challenged him to a duel of hand to hand combat. Redmund was no slouch in this area, but hardly up to the training of the Marchessa. Alec snapped his neck and his threat was over. Once again, Cowan had avenged Sojourner without really knowing it; Alec was none the wiser than Clay was about Clay's son.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">With Redmund's entire family gone, Clay Byron focused once more deeply on his training. When Alec left the Solacium in 1977 to fulfill his final mandate, Marchessa knew he may never return, and he did not. Clay was left behind to lose himself in honing his body and mind to their sharpest points in order to obliterate the pain of his lost wife and son. The Marchessa promised Alec that when Clay seemed ready, she would send him back to Hallmark to claim his fortune and, hopefully, his place beside Cowan in the Aggregate. Cowan did indeed find his place among the Aggregate, as recounted elsewhere, but he was pained to learn that Kicia was involved with the enigmatic Brother Zodiac. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">V. Black Cabal Rising</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">In early 1977, Jerusha Dharma fell ill and could not be saved by anyone at Feng Qi. Clive felt it was time to conclude his training there and go to London to get his mother's affairs in order. He left behind Mei-Chen to train for one more year before she headed to Hallmark to petition for membership in the Aggregate. With the resources available to him via the Byron estate, Caulder Gaunt accompanied Clive and loaned him a large sum of money and helped to establish his credentials. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Gaunt called upon a friend and former co-worker at OrDeR Enterprises, Oswin Juan Clancey for help in Clive's ventures. Oswin flew to London from Hallmark with his associate Stephanie Ransom Avril, wife of Egon Avril of the infamous Avril clan discussed in our tenth installment. Gaunt and Clancey forged documents such as an archaeologist's degree, a tidy bank account, and any other identifying documents. These items were created for Clive under the name Randell Coventry. Clive Dharma wished the world to continue with their ignorance of his existence. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Oswin Clancey (b. 1953) is noteworthy as the son of Zachariah Clancey and Dawn Cheshire, both discussed thoroughly in earlier treatments. He was an executive in advertising at OrDeR. He and Clive bonded immediately and he used his resources to help “create” Randell Coventry. He was also looking to invest in new ventures. Stephanie was as well, and she had a degree in archaeology and shared Clive's interests. It was implicit that no one involved in this enterprise reveal the truth. Gault assured everyone that they would be rewarded richly when Clay finally took control of his fortune. Another investor, the Frenchman Aloysius Pascal, came on board in late 1977, and he and Clive became best friends. He, Clancey, Stephanie, and Gaunt set up shop in London, where Clive stayed for nearly two years, scraping together enough cash for one last grand expedition. Thus was Coventry Expeditions born. During his time in London, Clive/ Randell engaged in a short-lived and tempestuous marriage to Pascal's sister Margeurite.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Caulder worried that he had been corrupted by Clive's obsessions and that their years at Feng Qi were for naught. He missed the peace he had found there. But he found himself drawn in by the danger and clandestine nature of his activities. He wondered what kind of man he really was before his amnesia. He decided to forge ahead with Clive's plan and head to Hallmark, where he met with Cary Bradcroft and propose a merger with Bradcroft Ltd. Cary agreed to consider it, but felt he should meet with Coventry himself first. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">For Gaunt's part, he decided to stay in Hallmark until the Ghost Cat arrived as planned to petition for membership in the Aggregate. He felt the time had come to tell her how much he truly loved her. But Mei-Chan rejected Caulder's advances, however. She simply did not see him in that way. Gaunt was frustrated beyond words. He began hanging out in Flicker Street, drinking heavily and filled with self-pity. He took up painting, producing abstract portraits inspired by his time at Feng Qi. The more he painted, the more bizarre the symbolism – images of vistas unimaginable filled his canvases, as visions of frightening planes and creatures filled his lucid dreaming. He dreamt almost nightly of Clive and his sword and amulet. In his dreams the Black Cabal was reborn as one man, wielding the ancient talisman against a mad god with a third eye and six arms.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">As for Clive Dharma, he left Stephanie in charge of their London office and planned an expedition to Exodesia in 1979. He felt they needed a guide, a go-between to survive in Exodesia. Gaunt recommended Javier, who was grudgingly welcome in Exodesia. Javier went to London to meet with Clive, Oswin, and Aloysius, and soon the four of them were in Africa, making the expedition up the mountain where lied the city of Exodesia. They came before the priest Assias, whose attention was drawn to Clive's talisman. Assias attempted to barter with Dharma for the objects. This was in vain. Clive announced that he wished the defeat of the Shadow Baron and could assure it happening if Assias trained himself and Pascal in certain Exodesian and Piscean arts of dark alchemy. Oswin had no desire to learn and Javier was already well-versed. Assias agreed, and Dharma and Pascal trained for one year in Exodesia. During this time, Arch Priest Urias was in America working for SkullCorp and assembling a new Damnation Brigade to plague the Aggregate. This was fortunate as he coveted the secrets of the Black Cabal himself. Assias was not a member of the Obscuros; thus, Clive and Javier correctly believed that he could be trusted. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Oswin was housed in Exodesia's Azure City, a place where Exodesians of a more benign bent than the Obscuros dwelt. Assias was the prime minister of sorts of Azure City. Javier finally felt at home somewhere in Exodesia. The year at Azure City went by quickly and surprisingly well for Clive's party, especially given the dark forces at work all around them. Oswin attributed much of this to Clive's talisman, which Oswin believed gave Clive a certain aura that protected the group. Though this seemed to be mere speculation on the part of a layman, it actually was a correct assumption. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">In the summer of 1980 Clive “graduated” from his studies in Exodesia. The next stop for the Dharma party was Hallmark. Pascal was sent to the London office to meet with Stephanie. He was to work there, while Gault and Oswin took care of business with Cary Bradcroft. Javier bowed out of the whole affair, but thanked all for helping him actually have a decent experience in Exodesia. Clive now assumed the identity of Randell Coventry and began traveling with Stephanie to archaeological digs to gain actual experience at the position he had faked his way into. Before he left Hallmark, however, he met with one final investor – someone he'd wanted to seek out for some time – Orphee deLander. What passed between them was to be revealed to the public late that year and will be discussed in our next installment, in which Clive steels himself to finally face Cary Bradcroft. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Welcome to Flicker Street!</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Henry Covert</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">October 31, 2015</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Flicker Street, all characters, images, and story elements are Copyright (c) 2015 George Henry Smathers Jr.</span>Henry Coverthttps://plus.google.com/103990383640616339933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3852574899003991711.post-11633140053980522932015-10-16T15:34:00.001-07:002015-10-19T11:31:39.957-07:00FLICKER STREET Treatment # 15 - I Luciferi<span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The longest installment yet. Enjoy!</span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-W9kUymahyfo/ViF7XAFSEhI/AAAAAAAADIs/1Kh8qxp9zKM/s1600/Prester%2BJohn%2BGrey.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-W9kUymahyfo/ViF7XAFSEhI/AAAAAAAADIs/1Kh8qxp9zKM/s320/Prester%2BJohn%2BGrey.jpg" width="231" /></a></div><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">FLICKER STREET Treatment #15 – I Luciferi</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I. A Digression Rising...</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Now it's time to take a sideways glance at a wild cluster of subjects interlaced to forge a complete portrait: a sharp slice of the Hallmark “street scene” over 30 years of mutations and permutations, at its very nexus point on Flicker Street itself. This is only one such scene but we explore it here as a respite from the labors of the Aggregate.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Explored within is the history of the infamous Lucifer Club, from 1952-1982. Through the lives of its owners and patrons we can trace the bloody fingerprints left on the world by the wounds and scars of an American city (albeit a unique one).</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">II. The Lucifer Club</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In 1952, the man called Javier, son of Biazel Karollus, was embracing his Exodesian side and was assisting Arch-Priest Urias the Grand Necromancer as Urias made a bid to become one of the birthing SkullCorp's inner circle. Javier envisioned an exclusive club where the more decadent and, shall we say, curious denizens of Flicker Street and beyond could congregate and indulge themselves without a care. Javier did not really discriminate with the “exclusive” tag; he was not against lower classes of folk patronizing the club – as long as they paid. Urias lent Javier some capital, and a handful of Hallmark's finest chipped into invest, all with the caveat that it be repaid in one year, and Javier would become co-owner of the club, with Urias a silent partner, hence the club was yet another source of revenue for SkullCorp. Javier's plan was to eventually buy out Urias – if that was possible.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Javier opened the club on New Years Eve, 1953. From the first night, two groups that would be mainstays and lifeblood of the club congealed. The first group to hold court in the club revolved around Nels Christensen, a cohort of Javier's that worked for the Machine. He was an investor in the club. His brother, Lambert Christensen, would often visit. What Nels did not know was that the Lambert that would drop in on him from time to time was actually Bram Vallard aka the Apparition (and his split personality Royal Hoxworth aka Saturnine). The real Lambert “loaned” his ID to Vallard for long stretches while he tooled around Europe. But the real Lambert died in 1950. Vallard continued the ruse however, keeping Nel's older brother alive. Vallard was such a master of disguise and subterfuge that Nels never discovered the truth.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Nels found a motley group to drink and watch the exotic dancers with. One of his employees, Judd Fullerton, who he condescended to in the workplace, became a treasured drinking buddy, as did Judd's best friend, Henry Colter (b. 1923), who played drums in the closest thing the club had to a house band, the Ulysses Reale 6. Henry was the only white member of the band, so Nels tended not to invite Henry's bandmates over except for an occasional toast. Shiloh Mercer, the soprano sax player, often crashed their gatherings in an extremely inebriated state. Shiloh was another of the African-American branch of the Mercer clan, and was the 6th great-grandson of Ewen Cromwell. The whole group enjoyed Shiloh's company, except Nels and his friend Jonathan, an occasional member of this poor man's Rat Pack. Jonathan Sebastian III was a wealthy German-descended heir who was a major investor in the Lucifer Club. Jonathan was often referred to as the “sixth wheel” by the employees. Javier actually was himself a tight member of Nels' crew, though unlike Nels and sebastian he was fair to everyone.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">There was a final key player in the “Christensen Quintet” as they became dubbed due to an off-hand remark by Ulysses Reale's bass player, a real cut-up called Ondine Jackson. Jackson's epithet was hardly appreciated by Nels, but it stuck. Nels had recently invested a great sum of money in film production and distribution, and wanted foreign films as well as cheapo American flicks on his slate. Nels befriended an Italian producer whose young nephew, Luca Stenoretti (b. 1923), was honing his craft as a cinematographer. Nels flew to Italy to see Luca's latest work on a film called <i>The Sirens of Pallas</i>, a period adventure film with mythological elements (this at that time had not yet coalesced into the genre we now know as peplum, or “sword and sandal” flicks). This was the first film Stenoretti directed himself (and shot as well).</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Stenoretti wielded a secret which kept Javier installed as as the “fifth banana” in the Christensen Quintet. Luca's mother, Isabella Clerici, was Javier's daughter; hence Biazel's granddaughter. Luca admired his charismatic grandfather and knew he was a practitioner of “black magic” (though Javier always told him it was “grey magick”), and was amazed that Javier looked younger than he himself. Javier agreed that he and his grandson would not go public with their relations. But Luca resolved that his films as a director would always be suffused with horror or the occult, even in his lower key thrillers and westerns. Later, Luca's half-brother Blasco Clerici, would work on Luca's films and also join Biazel's order (which Luca refused to do, as did Javier). </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">III. “The Others” </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The second group of regulars that helped define the club, and caused some controversy in the media, was all African-American and were a tight bunch. Playfully called “The Others” (referring to being seen as on a lower tier as Christensen's cohorts and also distinguishing this group from the Ulysses Reale 6), their main man was definitely Ulysses P. Reale, trumpeter - a proud, strong black man who refused to be cowed into submission by the likes of Christensen or Sebastian. His wife was Emmaretta Swope, who often sang with Reale's group or with a small orchestra. Reale himself did no drugs, though he drank, but some of his pals in and out of his group were users and/ or dealers. His alto sax player, the virtuoso James Colburne, was a heroin addict, as was Ulysses' childhood friend Paul Cutler, a quiet, kind gentleman with a roaring habit who also dealt when he could. </span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Reale and Cutler were joined by three other perennials: the aforementioned Ondine Jackson; Octavius Flay, a pimp who'd grown up with the rest but refused to drop out of the macking business; and young Junius G. Hand, who was on the waitstaff in the club's kitchen. Sebastian especially hated that such a menial would come and hang out in the club when his shift was over. Shiloh Mercer would gravitate to the “Others”' table regularly, unlike Colburne, who was into his own thing, and that amounted to: his alto and heroin. And he romanced both harder and more often than any woman who came his way, though he did end up getting married in the 1960s. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">IV. Erszebet</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Junius Hand looked up to Flay's pimping success and loved Ondine's quick wit. He imagined a life dazzling folks with his talents in both areas. He even had a name for a whole new persona to do just that: Black Torpedo Ray, after an aquatic creature he saw in one of his father's books. Junius had a serious, very forbidden crush on the club's main dancer and arguably greatest attraction: Erszebet Singer (born 1930). She was gorgeous and seemingly unattainable. She was quiet, but when she did speak, she lit up with a thick South Carolina accent that made her hard to follow in conversation. She was a burlesque star of some acclaim, and Javier had cultivated her to the delight of the club's investors, who he easily paid off within a year of opening. Then only Urias had any stake in the club besides Javier. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Erszebet was not the only popular dancer that plied her trade there. Felicia McGee, formerly the mystery woman known as Crimson Velvet, made many a guest appearance; her lifestyle, however, was ruining her good looks. Arronaxe LaRue was a popular performer. “Her claim to fame was her frame”, the saying went. She was not lithe and athletic like Erszebet; she had enormous breasts and extremely wide hips, and tantalized the crowd with both. Geneva was also a shapely and popular dancer but she was black and was forbidden from performing regularly. She was also Ulysses' sister and Ondine's wife.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Erszebet was a quarter Jewish and was quite devoted to her Bible readings. She found no shame in her work, however, but her brother, Eli, certainly did. Eli Singer was a bit of a proselytizer, which made him rather unwelcome at a place like the Lucifer Club (though the archways of the club's front door portrays a falling angel bearing the epithet: “All are welcome. Harm none”). Erszebet and Henry Colter were actually related. Henry was a half-uncle to Eli (b. 1929) and Erszebet. Thus Henry's and Erszebet's constant flirtation was somewhat incestuous, and angered Junius. Eli, however, would rather his sister be with their uncle than a black man any day. The roots of Henry's and the Singers' families (as well as those of many other noteworthy denizens of Flicker Street and beyond) lie with the Parminters of Gossingham; their family history will chronicled further along in our narratives. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">V. The 1953 Affair</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">During the Christmas holidays in 1953, Javier held a lavish “Yule Bash”. Colburne's alto solo on “Greensleeves” was a scorching highlight of the Ulysses Reale 6's set. The music was really jumping; the alcohol was plentiful, those that needed a fix got one out back, and the girls were on full display in all their pulchritude. Arronaxe almost stole the evening when she doffed her top, but Erszebet continued to reign supreme, dancing with a Santa hat on – and not much else. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As the evening wound to a spastic close, Erszebet went missing. Eli had come to the club to disrupt her “unholy frolicking”, but she was nowhere to be found. Javier asked Eli to leave and Singer swore he'd destroy the “pagan heathen bastard” Javier before he died. While Javier was avoiding a serious problem, another arose. Nels, Henry, Judd, and Luca were extremely intoxicated and wanted a special table dance from Erszebet. They went looking in Javier's office, and found her making love with young Junius G. Hand! Javier came upon the scene. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Did you know about this?” asked Nels. Javier indicated he did. He plead with the four not to tell anyone for fear that Eli would launch a literal lynch mob against Junius. Then Erszebet confessed she was already pregnant with Junius' child. This wasn't the first time they had carried on. Javier hatched a scheme: if her pregnancy was found out, the Christensen Quintet would claim they had a mad consensual orgy with a willing Miss Singer. Erszebet thanked them, and agreed to go along, but worried it would ruin the men, especially Javier and Nels. Nels was furious, but swore to go along with the pact, even though he really thought Junius should be lynched anyway. Not only was he a Negro, thought Christensen, but he was damned annoying with his constant jokiness. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Everyone went about their business, but in a few weeks Erszebet was starting to show. The rumor mills began grinding as she stopped performing and wouldn't allow herself to be photographed. Javier leaked the story to the media himself, though no one knew this save him. As predicted, all was traced to the Yule Bash. Javier admitted to the media there'd been an orgy. The other men all said, “no comment” (as did Luca in Italy; he was actually quite taken with Miss Singer and wished it had been him). </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The scandal almost did in Erszebet. “The Baby with Five Fathers” and “Heir to the Christensen Quintet” were some of the labels attached to the unborn child. The baby's complexion (even given Javier's odd skin tone) would give away that it had a black father. Geneva Reale had agreed to deliver the baby (she had studied nursing before resorting to dancing) in secret, and it would be sold to a black family. Geneva knew a couple: the Jamaican Heracles Torrance and his mixed-race wife Tamara Welsh. They could not have children, and little Dane Hand, as Erszebet called him, became their son, Dane Torrance (who we know as an adult aka The Troubleshooter from recent accounts). </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The official story was that the child was stillborn. None of the five men save Javier knew what had become of the child. Part of the pact the five men swore was that they would no longer congregate at the Lucifer Club. They did agree to attend a 15 year reunion there if the club still stood in 1968. Javier soldered on through the scandal and finally bought out Urias in 1960. Junius never did learn the truth about what happened; he assumed his child was in fact stillborn. He did become a pimp, following in Octavius Flay's footsteps. He was ambitious though; now known as Black Torpedo Ray, he hoped one day to own the Lucifer Club himself.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">VI. The 1968 Affair</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The reunion did indeed come to pass. The Yule Bash of 1968 was something to see at the Lucifer Club, still owned by Javier but managed by Black Torpedo Ray. Times had changed. The drugs were more mind-altering, the music more wild and free, the women baring more than ever before (in other words everything). Flicker Street pulsated with the orgiastic energy that flowed in and out of Javier's “pleasure palace”. The Ulysses Real 6 reunited for an amazing set. Colburne and Mercer were solo artists by this time, and each led their bands to the utmost heights of free jazz. Ulysses was still something of a hard bopper, and some of his newer arrangements, mixing R&amp;B and rock influences with his wife's bewitching voice, blew away the teeming throng at the club. Ondine Jackson was back on bass and cracking wise. His wife Geneva, who danced and sang back up to Emmaretta, had blessed him with a son Ondine Jr. in 1945 andOndine Jr.'s wife, Violetta Amadeus, had given birth to their son Amadeus “Amajack” Jackson mere weeks before the bash. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Henry Colter was more straight ahead bop than funk, but he could still mix it up on the drums a bit. Of his family, his wife, Mary Rudisill (b. 1920; a relative of the Palmers of Hallmark) and two sons (Radley Colter, b. 1940 and Milburne b. 1950) attended the party, though it was a bit much for Mary. Young Milburne had a great time. Of the “Others”, Octavius Flay made the party, flanked by a stable of his finest ladies of the evening. Black Torpedo Ray said, “Damn Flay! I may be a mack daddy, but you still the mackest of the macks!!” Most of Flay's offspring made it to the bash: his sons Cornelius, Moxon, and Jaffa; and his daughter Octavia, who was there with her boyfriend Euphrates Straw of the Aggregate (who was also there to keep an eye on Javier). Octavius' daughter Bethel was a devout Christian and she was in church that night. She would eventually marry her pastor, Judah Greene, and have a lovely daughter Scheherazade. All five children of Octavius were from his marriage to Ulysses' sister Rochelle Reale, making the Flays and Reales cousins.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Ondine and Ulysses have been discussed, but one beloved member of their crew from elder days was missing: Paul Cutler, the quiet, kind addict had finally succumbed, leaving behind three beautiful daughters, all of whom attended the bash: Naomi, who brought her 10 year old son Hobard Torino “Hobie T” Reale, to the party but not her estranged husband Godfrey Reale (Ulysses' son); Zandalee, who was at the time dating Hiawatha Hand but had her eye on his half-brother Black Torpedo Ray; and Pauline Cutler aka Cotton Suede, much discussed in these pages. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Black Torpedo Ray hosted the Lucifer Club Burlesque Film Festival. It began with vintage clips of Erszebet and many of her peers; and continued with three shorts specially made for this festival. These were the work of directors Matthias Creed, Cornelius Flay, and Luca Stenorettli, all honored guests at this Yule Bash. Luca and Henry were not the only members of the infamous Christensen Quintet to adorn the party. Javier was present, naturally, as were Judd and even Nels, who'd been living in Europe ever since the scandal broke. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Ray also hosted another special triple event, this one an unadvertised surprise: performances by the “big three” dancers of the fifties, opening with a still comely Geneva, and continuing with the jaw-droppingly buxom Arronaxe, and, finally, at age 38, still stunning and radiating her signature charisma, Erszebet Singer. The assembled throng was bowled over, and Ulysses and the other musicians played some swanky, evocative stripper-appropriate tuneage. Shiloh Mercer in particular soloed madly with no abandon while Miss Singer shook herself gradually into a frenzy. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Two hours later, the Christensen Quintet were plastered and Erszebet was still sailing on her first trip with LSD, as supplied her by Arronaxe. The six adjourned to Javier's office, where Erszebet immediately grabbed Henry in a passionate kiss. They made out while Javier went to confer with Ray and let him know not to disturb them. When he returned, Judd was crying in the corner, Henry was asleep with his pants off, Erszebet was naked and being fondled by Luca, Nels was cursing in the other corner, and Javier found himself curiously and intensely aroused by the whole thing. “Life imitates art!” he screamed as Luca made love with Erszebet on his fold out couch.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After Luca rolled off Erszebet, she called out to Javier, “I want you! I want you want you want you!” Javier was not the kind of man to indulge in what we now call date rape. He was not the kind of man to make love to a woman with anyone else around either. And he thought it so twisted that the story they concocted 15 years ago to save Ray's life had stirred to life, a gargantuan beast of brobdinagian lust. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So he made love with Erszebet. Afterwards he noticed Henry and Luca had dressed and were just outside the doorway. Nels and Judd were nowhere to be found. Erszebet dressed but was still tripping. Javier called for Ray and asked him to get her home; Javier would lock up and get the others out. Ray went out the back with Erszebet. Javier heard Nels call him, “Let me the hell out of here!” Javier ran downstairs, Henry and Luca behind. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Nels told Javier this was it; he was done with the group, the club, and “that slut”. Henry almost struck Nels for his remark. Judd asked if they could just leave. Javier agreed only if they made a new pact, that no one would speak of what happened. “Of course you idiot”, said Nels. “Now for chrissakes, let us out of this infernal place”. Luca lunged forward to deck Nels, but Judd held him back. Then, when Luca was calmer, Judd said, “Okay. Good night. I'm riding with Nels.” Judd was sobbing.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Nels and Judd took off. Outside, Ulysses' son Diggs Reale was pacing in the alleyway. He had been in and out of the club all night, seething mad. He was also a disciple of Octavius Flay and a rather nasty pimp and procurer in his own right but was jealous of Ray's success. He was waiting, waiting for a chance to plant certain items in Ray's car and to pay off his partner in sabotage – Eli Singer. Singer called the police after the club had closed down at 3 am. Only the Christensen Quintet, Erszebet, and Ray were inside then. By the time Nels and Judd roared away, only three of the 'Quintet' remained and they spoke for a moment about what happened, then resolved to lock up, leave, and never see each other again.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And so they each departed, just as police cars came into view. Ray was in his car out back talking to a sobbing and shaken Erszebet. Diggs had hastily split. But Eli Singer was heading back to the club to confront the Quintet. He found the front door locked and began screaming madly. The police drove up and immediately accosted him; then they spread out and covered the alleys and the back, where they found Ray and Erszebet. The cops confronted Ray and asked to check his car. They found a ton of cocaine and some semi-automatic weapons concealed in the trunk. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The police dragged Singer to the back of the club. They thought he was drunk (he was) and they were going to have some fun and rough him up. When Eli looked up, he saw Erszebet being pulled out of the car and Ray resisting arrest. “That ain't my shit you rat-soup-eatin' motherfuckers!” was one memorable curse Ray hurled at the men in blue. He used kung fu (his own peculiar technique) on the cops but their sheer number hemmed him in. Eli grabbed one of the cop's guns and shot his Erszebet, then shot at the cops. They blasted him away, and he lie cold and dead in the snow as the police pushed Black Torpedo Ray into a car and took Erszebet, shot in the arm, to an ER.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The police report was chilling: a pimp resisting arrest, a hooker shot by a wino who had to be killed in self-defense... everything was distorted, but to the racist, sexist police commissioner it was just another day. The mayor called for the club to be closed. Javier realized he needed to lower his profile or face the wrath of someone like his father or Urias. So the club closed while Black Torpedo Ray languished in prison for nearly five long years. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">VII. The Prince of Flicker Street</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Erszebet recovered quickly from being shot, and grieved her mad brother. She soon found out that she was pregnant again. She resolved to once again give her child up for adoption. It was a daughter, born in September 1969. She named her Celeste but her new parents changed her name. It would be years before this girl would find out her true parentage. Even Erszebet wasn't sure if it was Henry's, Luca's, or Javier's. She was actually going to tell Ray that their son Dane was alive when the cops came upon them. She swore she'd tell him one day. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Javier sold the club to Diggs Reale but soon divined that Diggs and Eli Singer were responsible for what happened that night right after Javier left. He admonished Diggs not to reopen too soon; the authorities would be all over the club all of the time. Diggs shrugged off Javier's advice and proceeded to reopen, making sure to keep all the right wheels greased, so to speak. Diggs was highly prosperous, keeping the “all are welcome” sign and attitude, though in fact, whites were rarely welcome, unless they were dealers or cops on the take.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In late 1973, Junius Gauge Hand was being offered a deal by his prison warden and the FBI</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">to get him out of prison to help them take down Diggs. In no time, Black Torpedo Ray was back on Flicker Street. He had scores to settle and was not to be trifled with. The first thing he did was have dinner with his daughter Kicia Blessing (b. 1955). Kicia's mother was the exotic Indian belly dancer Acacia Krishnamurti aka Acacia Blessing, who Ray wed briefly from 1954-1958. Acacia was a discovery of Javier's and was popular at the club. Kicia was hanging out in Flicker Street with the bohemian crowd. Ray was proud of her for not being a whore or a druggie. Ray next went to the Lucifer Club, where he confronted Diggs and warned him to sign the club over to him or die. Diggs laughed and accused Ray of tripping on some manner of drug. Ray beat him senseless and forced Diggs to sign the club over to him. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It had come to Javier's attention that Ray was free from prison. Javier went to Hallmark and sought out Ray, who was staying with Ulysses Reale. Javier was glad to see his friends again and together they mapped out a strategy to get the club back on its feet, so to speak, as Diggs had driven it into the proverbial ground and made of it his own personal pleasure palace of pimping and hard drugs. Their efforts were successful, though it took a few years. Ray integrated the club more, and forced the macks and dealers who hung out there to do their business on the streets, not inside the club. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The disco craze of the &nbsp;late 70s inevitably hit the Lucifer Club like a tsunami, and with it came a shock wave of cocaine fever. Ray started to burn out as the decade waned, and personal troubles involving his children took a toll, so finally, in 1982, he sold the club and retired early, living like a prince, and treating all of Flicker Street as his kingdom. </span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">VIII. Thaumaturgy Revisited...</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The man who purchased The Lucifer Club was known as Prester John Grey, and he was well-known all through Flicker Streeet and the larger Hallmark music scene. Prester John was born Vance Orlison Parminter in 1949 in Exodesia, the offspring of Grey Parminter and Basil Dylan Orlison (son of “Doc Vance” and Eve Dylan, daughter of Dr. Basil Dylan, the first major physician in Hallmark), both born 1920. Basil D. Orlison had a sister, Faustine, b. 1922, an occultist who owned the first occult shoppe in the city, even before Malcolm Bradcroft's shoppe, called simply Faustine's. Faustine married the aspiring bookstore magnate TR Bessemer Jr., an African-American entrepreneur. Their children were Eve Bessemer, b. 1953, and Taurean Bessemer III, born 1955, who as an adult merged his business with the smaller Noel chain, though Bessemer-Noel in its entirety was later sold to OrDeR Enterprises.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Faustine and Malcolm Bradcroft merged their interests into one shoppe, and in tandem, willed it to Cary and Ashton (though Ashton was technically not alive to see it). Faustine passed away in 1955 in childbirth. Hence Bradcroft LTD was born. In the years between Cary taking the shoppe and his affair with Katherine Van Juss (1956-1959), he began to fancy Grey Parminter, a formidable witch, whose lover Basil, was slain by the Exodesians in 1953. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Grey Parminter's story goes something like this: Her grandmother was Exodesian High Priestess Phallasma III, who begat a daughter, Selma Cairne, a powerful witch. Selma and her husband John Petty Parminter, the great-grandson of Exodesian Lodin, wished to spearhead a 1939 expedition into Exodesia – well before the Bradcrofts. But they weren't nearly as mentally or spiritually prepared as the Bradcrofts. Their expedition included: Grey, a teen of immense magickal promise; her lover, Basil; Selma and John Petty Parminter; Selma's sisters Ainwe and Anowre and their husbands, the occult book collectors Rainer and Werner Faust, who were brothers. The party was captured and tortured by the Obscuros. Grey offered her life and that of her lover and son if the others could go. Priest Assias was not thrilled, but he capitulated. Selma blessed her child and departed; she also bonded with her mother Phallasma, who favored her granddaughter Grey.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The small family unit stayed but Basil was put to death for heresy in 1953 for studying the Presence Vaikuntha. Grey was afraid for her young son, and they fled Exodesia. Grey had been converted to Hinduism just before Basil's death. The mother and boy had also been delving into the legend of Vaikuntha, as well as his defeat 1000 years earlier by the original Black Cabal (a group that forged a seemingly indestructible sword and amulet). Grey forsook the Exodesians and sought out Vaikuntha. She invoked his worship to gain revenge, realizing Urias would have her dead. Grey took Vance to Gossingham MA, near Hallmark. Faustine, ill at this time, was divesting her share of the curio shoppe to Cary, as noted previously.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Cary Bradcroft welcomed Grey Parminter Orlison with open arms – very open, as they began an affair. However, they always distrusted each other. Young Vance had never felt anything for the emotionally distant Basil, but was drawn to benevolent Cary Bradcroft. Where they parted company was over the mad god Vaikuntha, which Grey was beginning a coven for – a coven infused with a Hindu/ neo-pagan/ scorched earth vibe. Cary's concern was enormous, especially as she had befriended Katherine Van Juss, sorceress and a lover of Cary's on occasion. Cary's daughter Sarah was Katherine Van Juss'' though she was married to the mage Janos Disraeli, which whom Katherine had a son, Griffin (later known as Rory Sabbath). </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Janos confronted Grey over Vaikuntha. They fought; Grey was killed. Janos was afraid his delicate balance of power with the Shadow Baron would be ruined. He made it appear that Biazel had done the deed. The bottom line was that Janos slew Grey, for her evil intentions regarding Vaikuntha's imminent manifestation were bearing deadly fruit. As for Vance Parminter, he always believed his mother was slain by her lover Cary Bradcroft. Grey had convinced her son to become a lifelong acolyte of Vaikuntha. Young Vance Parminter ran away when his mother was killed, and the Bradcrofts were never able to locate him, or so Cary wished everyone to think. So he allowed Vance to became the homeless street urchin who began hanging out in Flicker Street in 1966. Cary kept tabs on Vance until Vance developed a 3<sup>rd</sup> eye, which grew in 1972 and blocked all psi “transmissions” Cary'd been tapping into astrally via Vance's mind.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">IX. The Third Eye... Opened</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Vance Parminter first emerged in the Flicker St scene in 1966 at age 17. His 3</span><sup><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">rd</span></sup><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">eye hadn't opened yet. In 1968, he met Althea Westin (whom he immediately fell for) and her fiance, Rankin Hogarth, who she was pregnant by. She had the child in 1968 and named him Franklin Westin Hogarth II after Rankin's congressman dad, who attempted to destroy his son and Althea's lives. The couple fought violently over his dad and their son, leading to Rankin fleeing with his son and forming a commune with James Diablos and others in 1969. After the couple's divorce Althea took in the couple's son, whom his dad had renamed Wesley Francis Garth, whose nickname was “Scrapper”. With Vance's role unknown to Rankin, Hogarth was soon reinvented as Desi Decadence, a 'shock rock' superstar. Rankin was pushed to the extreme in a chaotic spell that ruptured his persona. This was Vance's first real working, so perhaps his sloppiness can be forgiven. But he did it for love and, after all, made Rankin a rock star&nbsp;</span></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">(which Vance differentiated from being a musician).</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Rankin/ Desi and Vance lost touch, to Vance's relief. Vance pursued Althea and at last consummated their attraction (Vance was 23, Althea 19). They wed soon after, and had a child, Anjou Faustine Parminter (b. 1972). Vance busked, playing acoustic blues, and wrote and sang poems of a Lovecraftian bent. Althea waited tables and Wes, Anjou, and their parents eked out a meager existence. Musically, Vance was offered to jam in 1969 with Opal Masque, the German progrock band led by Glu Volker and Hercule Fogg. Volker had heard a crude demo recorded a year earlier and dug Vance's concepts. They recorded their premiere album, <i>La-Bas (Down There)</i> in early 1970; Parminter was 21. He then adopted his famous cowl and white mask, covering his 3<sup>rd</sup>eye, which emerged when he turned 23. Anaximander-Zayan played bass on this first album.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Vance was especially curious about his Exodesian heritage. After an ill-fated pilgrimage to Exodesia and rejection by the Obscuros, he assumed the Parminter forenames, but rejected the family name, becoming “John Grey”. As he studied the occult he added an exalted title in some would say a blasphemous context and became Prester John Grey (Presbyter Johannes being a legendary figure of early Christendom). He draped himself in occult imagery but seemingly venerated the cross and crucifixes. As noted, he was famed for wearing a large black cowl and a chalk white faux porcelain mask evocative of the Phantom of the Opera (concealing his 3<sup>rd</sup>eye), framed by extremely long dreadlocked hair. He was known for playing the guitar with small daggers and cross-shaped plectrums. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In 1971, Volker, Fogg, and Prester John recorded <i>Weltanschauung</i> and toured tirelessly with a lineup consisting of PJG, Anaximander, Glu, Fogg, and synth/ vox/ sax man Jorg Jungen Reinl. In 1972, they added female vox/ keys with Anke Mueller and switched bass to Brit Hasty Greenhalgh. Also in 1972, Prester John's daughter Anjou Faustine Parminter was born. The constant touring and occult obsessions were rending PJG's marriage. In 1974, Anke died (allegedly an occult sacrifice) and Reinl decamped, leaving 1975's final Opal Masque album, called <i>Torn from Me Mother Whore</i>, for years to feature PJG, Hasty, Glu, and Fogg. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In 1973, PJG and Althea separated, and in 1975, divorced. Grey even wrote the lyrics and music to the chilling lament of their marriage, the title track on <i>Torn from Me Mother Whore</i>. In 1975, PJG finally recorded his scary acoustic album<i> In Nomine Anti-Christ</i>. Althea raised her two children alone back in the Mt. Mosaic area.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">From 1976 -1979 PJG was a key member of bassist Grady Voorman's psyche-funk project Cold Meat, also featuring Gilligan Dubecker on drums, Reinl on alto and tenor sax, and Gibson Dubecker on piano and synth. Sadly, Cold Meat coincided with the termination of the marriage between Althea and John. PJG was to spend the next decade plus working alongside Desi Decadence once more.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">X. Lucifer Rises Again (1979-1982)</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">There was an extra-musical, clandestine reason PJG sought out the ex-Rankin Hogarth. Desi was essentially PJG's creation. Part of his persona, from his debut as Prester John Grey onwards, was as a follower of Bradcroftian occultism. He became an authority on the various orders and factions abroad in the world of ritual magick. He realized that the Bradcrofts were against Vaikuntha (who his mother was an adherent to). Grey had sworn a vow to his mother to become a vessel for Vaikuntha, and none would deter him. When Vaikuntha returned to this plane, PJG became a secret worshipper, and actively sought out Vaikuntha's avatars, beginning in 1979.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In 1982, the idea of the Lucifer Club strongly appealed to Prester John Grey, so he re-opened it as a rock club, heavy on the metal, brutal with the punk, all subtlety be damned. He cultivated a strong image in the scene and was revered by clubgoers and record mavens alike for his work with Desi, Cold Meat, Opal Masque, and solo. No one could predict in 1982 that Grey's finest years as a musician – and most devious years as an occultist – were yet to come.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Originally this article was to contain a more comprehensive genealogical look at the Parminter clan of Gossingham, but that fell just beyond the purview of this piece. Look for more info on this remarkable family in future accounts.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Welcome to Flicker Street!</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Henry Covert</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">October 16, 2015</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Flicker Street, all characters, images, and story elements are Copyright (c) 2015 George Henry Smathers Jr.</span><br /><br /><br />Henry Coverthttps://plus.google.com/103990383640616339933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3852574899003991711.post-77821885031983118812015-10-10T20:17:00.000-07:002015-11-27T09:48:18.299-08:00FLICKER STREET Treatment # 14 - Extrapolations<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WFDWTFSJSJw/VhnUiNHZpxI/AAAAAAAADIM/zr-c3eMMrLw/s1600/11831656_10153561632696155_6440590209286099333_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WFDWTFSJSJw/VhnUiNHZpxI/AAAAAAAADIM/zr-c3eMMrLw/s400/11831656_10153561632696155_6440590209286099333_n.jpg" width="208" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">FLICKER STREET Treatment # 14 – Extrapolations</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">I. How Sharp...?</span><br /><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">It's like a beauty pageant for mystery men”, grumbled Alec Duarte over his drink. “Instead of a baton, some clown'll break out num-chucks”. He laughed as he swilled down his paper-bagged lunch, much to the chagrin of his associates in the Aggregate. He was hoping the membership drive would divert his attention from thinking about Kicia Blessing.</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">The first prospective member was introduced to the group. He was called Serpent's Tooth and boasted an elaborate partially-scaled out fit that covered his entire head and body. Ledge wanted a piece of him but Straw took the honors. Serpent's Tooth was holding his own against Straw, who, like Ledge and Duarte, was slightly inebriated, which the Shadow Baron was not too thrilled with. Then, before anyone could move, Straw collapsed.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Don't beat a drunk when he's down, Tooth!” cried the ever ill-timed Thomas Ledge. Soon, Cary realized that his first applicant had thrust his fingers into a sensitive nerve cluster on Straw's back which temporarily disabled Euphrates. Ledge wasn't pleased and sprung up to wail on the smaller man. “I could just cry 'Uncle' but I guess that'd be redundant”, said Serpent's Tooth. Then he peeled back his mask to reveal - </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Damon Carroll!" spat Ledge. "My brother's foster kid! Hell yeah you can call me uncle. Guys, I helped raise this boy. My brother Clarke and his wife were Damon's foster parents til Damon joined that cult. How's that goin' for you, by the way, kid?”</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Damon replied, “It's not a cult. And I just finished college. Now I'm studying to be a chiropractor. Listen, this is secret stuff; can I trust everyone? No offense - “</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Straw made his way off the floor and answered. “If you trust Ledge, then you're already half way to making a public service announcement, the way he talks. By comparison, the rest of us are 'loose lips, slink- uh, sink ships. Man what's you do to me? I didn't drink that much.” </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">We are taking much risk trusting you, Damon-san,” added Konchuman. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">You're safe here, Damon”, stated Cary. “Just let us ask the questions for awhile. We have some time before the other applicants arrive so can you tell us more about yourself and why you wish to join?”</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">The unadulterated truth about Damon Carroll should be laid out at this time. Much of this he relates to the curious seven. At the points where Damon finds it inconvenient or painful to relate events, we will make note but keep the reader clued in.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">II. Baphomet</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Damon was born in 1956, a Pisces. Biazel was not thrilled about Damon's parentage – that his beloved daughter Velupsa Karollus could engage in an affair with Kong of all men disgusted him, especially when she was still married to Biazel's disciple Smith Fabricand, who was besieged by the Bradcrofts at this time. Smith was killed while Velupsa was pregnant with Kong's child. Biazel made sure for decades that no one, save Velupsa and himself (not even Kong) would know who Damon Karollous' real father was. Biazel took the newborn child from an ailing Velupsa and put him in a foster home, foisting him off as Damon Carroll. Biazel did have plans for the child but it would be years before they came to fruition.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">After an unpleasant upbringing in foster care, in which the highly intelligent Damon was hardly challenged (except by a plethora of bullies), he was finally taken in by Clarke and Sadie Ledge in 1965. Damon did so well in public school he was allowed to skip a grade and graduated from high school in 1973. His time with the Ledges was also coming to an end that year (not 1969 as reported elsewhere). The Ledges' marriage was crumbling, as Sadie had learned of Clarke's homosexuality. As soon as Damon graduated, he fled to California, angry at both his foster parents. Sadie died that year, and Clarke in 1974 (as covered elsewhere). </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Damon went to college in California for four years and his experiences there were uncanny and are what lead him to becoming Serpent's Tooth. He had been secretly studying the occult for a few years; hence, the contention with his parents. Damon was especially interested in Kabbalah, Kundalini, tantric magic, and alchemy. He attended several meetings of like-minded folk, and, at one, in early 1974, he met a shy androgynous girl who called herself Chrome. She asked him to attend a meeting of her coven, the Order of Cosmic Awakening. Damon got a distinctively bad vibe, and the reigning wizard of the coven was a wizened, gnarled old man with gleaming green eyes. His name was Biazel Karollus and he informed Damon that he was his grandfather but that Velupsa Karollus, Damon's mother, was dead. “But meet your other living relative, Damon – your cousin, Chrome Genet, or as we call Chrome here: Baphomet!”</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">With that, the cultists tore away Chrome's clothing to reveal her true nature as a hermaphrodite. Biazel went on a tangent about the “third sex” being revered going back to ancient times as beings especially receptive to incredible magickal power. These integrated beings could mate with males or females, but were incapable of parthenogenesis. Damon was rushed by the throng, and though he fought boldly (Clarke had taught him to fight since he'd been beaten in the foster home), the wave of robed disciples buoyed him about and forced him into an elaborate ceremonial room. They pushed Chrome in afterwards. Damon skipped over much of what followed in his account to his prospective teammates. Suffice to say, Damon and “Baphomet” did indeed “mate”, though Damon found it distasteful. But despite that, there was something in hir eyes that softened Damon's heart. She was the aggressor in the affair, yet Damon still saw hir as an innocent of sorts. S/he chanted while making love with Damon, softly, invoking the tantric energies.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">After all was said and done, Damon felt defiled and disoriented. Chrome slunk out of the room, tears in hir eyes. Biazel entered and confronted a dressing Damon. “S/he's my daughter Genesse's offspring. Your family. We thought we'd bring you into the fold in a pleasurable way. What do you think boy? I know tantra appeals to you. As a matter of fact, I know everything about you, Damon Carroll. Things even you don't know. Or aren't ready to grasp quite yet. What say you boy? Join the order?</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Hey! The boy's ready to crack. Moldor! Come in here. Damon, Antioch Moldor is a lieutenant of mine whose had right good success disrupting Disraeli's more – unh, benign branch of our thaumaturgical tree. Recently had a mix up in Massachusetts with that bastard Javier. Well, you don't know what I'm talking about.... but you will”. Biazel's eyes glistened emerald in the dim light. While the old man spoke in his peculiar accent, Damon had been curling his hand about a flaming brazier behind him. When Moldor approached Carroll, Damon hit the man with the brazier chained loosely to the wall. He wrapped the chain around Moldor's neck and screamed, “I'm leaving! And don't try to follow me. I-I'll kill you.”</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Let it be as it may then, boy. Kill me?” he wheezed as he laughed.</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Then – him!” screamed Carroll as he jammed the flaming brazier into Moldor's face, scalding him slowly to death. Blood and wax sprayed on Damon's robe, which he doffed as he bolted out the back door. He ran, and ran...</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">This nightmarish experience, and the abuse he suffered in his youth, mitigated by the solid values espoused by Clarke and Sadie Ledge, made Damon's mind a roiling but fertile petrie dish of possibilities. After college, he sought out Javier of the Order of Cosmic Emptiness in Hallmark. Javier carried on the Order of Gammadion, a “good” order to Biazel's decidedly evil one. No sooner had Damon set foot in Hallmark than Javier found him in his new apartment. Javier, it turned out, was family to Damon – the son of Biazel and a half-human, half-Exodesian woman called Sharima; hence, Damon's uncle.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Javier offered to train Damon unconditionally. Javier was surrounded by dark forces and yearned for filial companionship. Damon agreed, and the two men trained for over a year until Damon abruptly severed their alliance. The crestfallen Javier accused Damon of using him as a stepping stone to train with Cary Bradcroft or even Juniper Thoth (aka Jennifer Roeg, daughter of Gerhardt Vossius/ Kanabal; a left-hand path mage that we'll be dealing with in future volumes). </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Damon apologized; he didn't ever mean to use his uncle and told him how thankful he was. But he was, indeed, wishing to train with Bradcroft next. Javier grudgingly gave Damon his blessing. Damon created a masked identity because he wished to move about inconspicuously in Hallmark and continue his chiropractic studies. Bradcroft happily welcomed Damon. He announced that a new member had been found. But the “try-outs” were far from over. There were several more candidates to consider. And the team demanded Cary employ a more diplomatic system of arriving at a decision instead of simply by a sorcerer's fiat. Bradcroft agreed that they would review all of the applicants and vote as a group afterward on who would stay and who would go.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">III. Candidates </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">The next candidate was Lars Poole (b. 1957), the first-born son of Orphee deLander. Poole went by the code name Corona, as he could generate a heat plasma field around himself and, like his father, cause tendrils of energy to emanate from it. He was not nearly as powerful as his father but he could be a great asset. After Corona spoke briefly and nervously to the group, Cary brought in a young man named Stephen Bartholemew aka Myrmidon after a Greek legend. Stephen did not care if his ID was public or not and rarely referred to himself as Myrmidon. Stephen has been discussed briefly in an earlier installment as he was the son of the White Archer, Brandon ver Dorn. He was born in 1959 to Medea Strasser Bartholemew, a former REACT spy who studied under REACT's "superspy" couple Thurston "Tyger" Smythe and Annabelle deVries. When ver Dorn's assignment for REACT ended, he sadly abandoned his identity as Sigmund Bartholemew and his bride. He never knew he had a child and REACT shielded him from that info.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Medea remarried when Stephen was three, but her husband refused to give the child his name, which was Angelo Blatanski. Angelo was an abusive, insufferable idiot by all accounts. He was a very low level mob informant and steelworker at Vossius Metalworks. and took out his frustrations daily on his wife and on Stephen. This nurtured in Stephen a repressed rage that rarely took a firm shape, but when it did it was bloodthirsty. None of this was shared with the Aggregate, at least not then.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Blatanski was allegedly killed by an undercover policeman in 1975, though Stephen's own mother suspected Stephen was the true culprit. He was never even considered as a suspect, but despite it all, Mrs. Blatanski cast out 16 year old Stephen to fend for himself. He was able to work full-time at the Harness &amp; Toffler grocery chain, where he met his best friend - Lars Poole. Lars had encouraged Stephen to apply for the Aggregate, though Stephen was only a self-trained street fighter and marksman. He caught on quickly, and had the benefit of the marvelous ver Dorn genes.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">The next applicant was the young martial artist Ko Mei-chan, known in Asia as Ghost Cat. She was born in 1943, the fraternal twin of Archimedes Ko, and spent some time at Feng Qi studying with the late Shun Ti. She was amazingly youthful, looking all of a schoolgirl when she was 32 years old. Her father, Bram Vallard aka the Apparition (and Saturnine and many more) was, of course, the schizoid co-founder of both the Aggregate and the Silent Seven before them. Ghost Cat took part in some training with her nephew Jun-kim Liao, who was being groomed to be a true force of nature in the martial arts world. The team were impressed with the demonstrations of her skills, particularly in a playful match with Konchuman.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">IV. Greetings from Gossingham</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Supposedly every party has its crashers, and that seemed to be the motivation of the final applicants: a couple, Garnet and Cynosure. Garnet was a gorgeous woman clad head to toe in shades of garnet, her birthstone, replete with duster, blazer, and incredibly long scarf. She looked more like a rock star than a superhero, though in Flicker Street, the two often bleed into and subsume each other. She claimed to be a superior fighter and assassin-for-hire, seduction being her hook to draw in the enemy. She radiated a deadly charisma.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Cynosure also cultivated a baroque rock star image, with part Edwardian dress, part gypsy flamboyance, and a completely made up lavender-painted face and a WWI fighter helmet, goggles and all. He would be labeled “steampunk” in the modern era, no doubt. He was fully color-coordinated with Garnet. His claim was heightened senses – all five honed to superhuman levels. Beyond that, he was a bit of a scrapper and admitted he could really use some “combat training” but mainly just loved playing music (he was toting a gorgeous guitar with him).</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Cynosure spoke little, letting his lady friend do most of the talking. Garnet was young but tough; perhaps callous is a better word. She demanded entrance into the group so vehemently that Cotton asked, “Young lady – are we bein' pranked – or what?? Don't waste our time”. Alec grinned broadly at this.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Garnet was born Garnet Pace in Gossingham in 1957. She went to work for a SkullCorp warehouse in 1974. She quickly acclimated herself to the company's set up and advanced quickly. Her seductive persona helped immensely. She first knew Cynosure as Cyrus Parminter, a childhood classmate (and sometime boyfriend) of Garnet's sister Ruby Pace, born, like Cyrus, in 1962. Cyrus dreamt of becoming a rock star since he was a small child and had the innate talent to build towards his dreams. When he was twelve, he began going by a name he created: Convy Lee Sutch, and refused to ever answer to his legal name. He had a troubled relationship with his mother, and became legally emancipated at age 13. He moved in with Ruby and Garnet and their cousin Sam, who shared a trailer park dive. Sam, a journalist, was the closest thing Convy Lee had to a paternal figure in his teens. With Sam's help, Cyrus Parminter legally became Convy Lee Sutch in 1977. Under Garnet's tutelage (and often under her warm body), Sutch created the Cynosure persona and was inducted into a small team of Skull corporate spies. Garnet went way for a time for "training"; she was actually bearing CL's daughter, Sarah Pace (b. 1979), who was soon adopted by a barreb couple who were also extended family to Convy Lee. Thye called her Jynx Parminter.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">It was in this capacity that they applied for membership in the Aggregate.&nbsp;</span><span style="color: blue; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;">But the assembled throng was not really fooled. There seemed to be more style than substance for sure. When the group voted, Corona, Myrmidon, and Ghost Cat were voted in, bringing the Aggregate's number to a healthy 11. Their latter two hopefuls were rejected. Garnet angrily stormed out. Cynosure trailed behind but paused to make a filial gesture at Stephen, the “devil's horns” or “evil eye”, because he thought Bartholemew seemed cool. Their paths would cross again, and often, as we shall see in future accounts.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">And so the Aggregate faced a new and uncertain year. They spent most of their time training; getting in sync with each other; learning each other's peculiar moves and techniques. In our next treatment, we hope to gather together some dangling threads and advance our narrative further than before. But let's clarify some points re: certain organizations in Flicker Street's orbit.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">V. 1979: The State of Things</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">This is as good a time and place as any to iterate the convoluted intrigues of Skull and REACT – who does what exactly and whose side are they on? On the surface the impression given FSO and the Aggregate is there's a simplistic 'good spy (REACT) vs. bad spy (Skull)' cold war scenario. Things are quite a bit more complex than that, as is no doubt evident by now.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">SkullCorp began as a vice and racketeering outfit (as 'The Machine') that segued, simply put, into an international conglomerate that deals in entertainment and media. Skull uses money from its overflowing coffers to fund armies in South America and destabilize regimes in foreign countries. Many politicians are where they are due to Skull's largesse, and hence votes for such actions are plentiful. Skull's main base in South America is in Libania, a country with a long history of political and territorial strife. As of 1978, Generalissimo Copron is the ruler of Libania, having performed a military coup partially funded and carried out by REACT at the onset of President Eisenhower's administration. There is constant strife between Libania and neighboring Serafinia. The two have been enemies for centuries, their conflict rooted in religion and the sacred ground of the Ziggurat, on the border between nations. Serafinians are considered savages by Libania, but are not – as rumored – cannibals. The ancient Yashaharo clan, whose villages border Libania to the south, are still cannibals, and live a Stone Age existence to this day.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Libania's ruling military party is FOPA (English translation; in English Freedom Of the People's Army), coincidentally pronounced the same as the French phrase faux pas. They have been espousing socialist values, albeit beneath a militaristic patina, for decades. American and Libania are officially enemies in the cold war, and no trade or embargo between the two exist. They are ruled by President Carter in 1979 as Communist and a terrorist threat. This hasn't made him rule out mending relations if he's re-elected. Serafinia is considered a US ally. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">And now, we turn everything we've just learned upside down. In actuality, as mentioned above, Copron gained power under Eisenhower, though Ike was out of the loop of all the CIA and REACT maneuvering. The benefits to this were manifold: Libania is one of the world's richest sources of homegrown illicit drugs; Copron wanted arms to conquer Serafinia and outlying nations such as Enquador; and so a permanent trade was set up in the 1950s. The US, with the knowledge of REACT's upper echelons, purchased massive quantities of drugs for decades while arming FOPA to the proverbial teeth.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">So what are the connections between Skull and REACT, who both fund Libanian military aims? In the US' case, the drug supply and the hiring out of FOPA agents for an occasional regime change is the main connection between FOPA and REACT. But Skull also develops highly advanced technology extrapolated from that shared by Omega Ceti I. Libania has bases underground and in the jungle where cutting edge experimentation takes place daily.Through FOPA, Libania (read Skull) began purchasing this alien tech as early as the late 1950s. The pods, regenerators, tellaxes, cybernetics, etc. went full circle into the hands of REACT and used against Libania. Thus both ostensible sides (REACT and Skull) were officially engaged in a cold war. And so we ask again: where does one end and the other begin in this Ouroboros-like construct? Bottom line: our true heroes on the world stage fight against both sides, and struggle to stay above the fray. The Freedom Squadron Ops has succumbed to the charade; the Aggregate has not and likely never will. And this is the status quo in 1979. Much grist for conspiracy theorists indeed.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Welcome to Flicker Street!</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Henry Covert</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">October 10, 2015</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Dedicated to the editors that gave me a chance: Michael Huegen, Samir Shukla, Scott Homewood, Steve Puchalski, Sam Gaines, Dave Yount, Allen Freeman, Shawnti Therrien, Jason V Brock, Win Scott Eckert, Dennis E Power, Michael Croteau, John Donald Carlucci,... and Sarah L Covert.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Flicker Street, all charactes, images, and story elements are Copyright (c) 2015 George Henry Smathers Jr.</span>Henry Coverthttps://plus.google.com/103990383640616339933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3852574899003991711.post-81507320205194846602015-10-05T04:19:00.001-07:002015-10-06T08:21:56.717-07:00FLICKER STREET Treatment # 13 - Iconoclasts<span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In which many questions are answered, and many more raised.</span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-L2gqAw4rZ0Q/VhJcjQTNKuI/AAAAAAAADH4/yerhucaOIOI/s1600/Cowan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-L2gqAw4rZ0Q/VhJcjQTNKuI/AAAAAAAADH4/yerhucaOIOI/s400/Cowan.jpg" width="248" /></a></div><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">FLICKER STREET Treatment # 13 - Iconoclasts</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I. Reconstruction</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When we last left Freedom Ops, their team had been ravaged by the seemingly indefatigable Exodesian Deomond. Their latest member Solus, along with Dr. E's help, managed to destroy Deomond – and himself – utterly. Dr. E, however, went comatose, and most of the team was catatonic, missing limbs, or both. It was decided to use Roger Greer's “Freedom Squad” as the most necessary human guinea pigs yet. REACT used tech purloined from Skull, in turn lifted from Omega Ceti I. This was the powerful regenerative tech – part medical science, part pure alchemy – that REACT perfected for military use, starting with Greer's outfit, decades before it began helping the US citizenry in any appreciable way. Euphrates Straw wished what his brother Emerson had wished – to pilfer the tech, and perfect it for Aggregate use. If Freedom Ops was going to be on the front line, being blasted and shot and blown apart and being mended to be sent out for more, Straw felt the Aggregate had the same duty – albeit for diametrically polar opposite political rationales.</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Still, the team, asked, just who was Solus? Solus was nothing short of a new form of life, extrapolating and splicing genes from Omega, Pisces, Exodesia, and humanity, and grown in a tube. He had no parents save Rykards and Caleb, and was a combination of genetic material harvested from the aforementioned species, bolstered cybernetically, and bombarded with TSD treatments. His mind was programmed to be that of the ultimate agent for Freedom Ops, and now, REACT was furious that he was destroyed on his first real mission. So they scrapped the envisioned Solus line for now, and concentrated on rebuilding and enhancing their current lineup, and subtly implanting them with a deep-seated loyalty to REACT and to the USA. Thus the men who had been friends and partners of Aggregate members might surprise their erstwhile acquaintances, as there would be something just a bit</span>&nbsp;</span><span style="color: blue; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">amiss.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The only Freedom Squad (henceforth, FS) members not to be mildly reprogrammed were Ursulin (his mind resisted any probing) and The Wrath, who astonishingly had sustained little injuries in the Libanian fracas. Wrath was offered a genetic “tune-up” and acquiesced to a point; he resisted being a part of the mind trials. REACT took note and considered him a low level risk.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After the dust settled, much of 1977 had been spent sorting through just what to do with FS Ops. Roger Greer, Jim April, Ben Renova, Oregon Powell, and Brandon ver Dorn all had limbs replaced and awoke from their lengthy comas ready to resume their status. Dr. E's mind (and suit) were now more malleable. Ursulin announced, after 25 + years, he and his brother Anaximander would be leaving Earth, to return to the races that conceived them and proffer themselves as a great success. Their parents were gone; it was time to fulfill their mission. And so REACT was stymied once again. SkullCorp saw this as a great thing, however. They were never pleased that Ursulin “defected” to REACT.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The “new” FS Ops welcomed two new members, who REACT had secured as further “tokens” to compete with the Aggregate's multi-ethnic makeup.<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">These were the black vigilante Dane Torrance, aka The Troubleshooter (his story shall unfold shortly); and the &nbsp;second draftee, not only FS Ops' first female member, but also Asian as well. She called herself Lumena, but she was really Kono Nashida (b. 1956), daughter of Kai Nashida (b. 1933), herself the daughter of the brilliant Professor Kenji Nashida, whose experiments with Omegan tech and cybernetics created Konchuman and Go Demon. Kono's father, she claimed, was Kong the Claimer! She swore she wished to atone in some small part for her father's evil by joining FS Ops. For his part, not only did Ben Renova believe her most sincerely, he was utterly smitten by Lumena.</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It is worth noting that no sooner had FS Ops returned to active status than the serial killings in Augensburg began again with a vengeance. The killings were even more ferocious and appalling than before. The reconstructed team turned their attention to this mystery in late 1977. Fortunately, so did a hero with no affiliation with the Squadron.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">II. Proof</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Before leaving Earth, Ursulin and Anaximander visited the Aggregate. But a few months before this, the group was faced with an offer of membership from Alec Duarte aka Cowan. Duarte had managed to break into Bradcroft Manor. Alarms were ringing as he identified himself as Cowan, and claimed he was the best thing that ever happened to the team. Shadow Baron bid them hear him out, though Thomas Ledge's hair-trigger sense of outrage and Cotton Suede's cynicism did little to create an atmosphere conducive to understanding. Though actually, between her immense pulchritude and streetwise attitude, Alec took to Cotton right away. She was very familiar to him.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Bradcroft invited Duarte to speak out and explain himself and how he could benefit the team. Cowan related a brief autobiography, including his true identity. He felt he was taking an awful risk, but if Marchessa felt these were his “true peers”, then so be it. Ledge had no confidence in Cowan's abilities despite the fact that he'd taken the team unawares. Ledge challenged him to “mix it up” with him for awhile to gauge his skills. Despite their 20 year age difference, Cowan held his own. But when Ledge connected, it was thunderous. He should've been pulling his punches but he wasn't. Cowan felt everyone there was messing with his mind. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">He matched martial arts with Konchuman (also much stronger than Alec), Cotton, and Straw. He savored the time with Cotton. The solitary Lykos was impressed with and liked Duarte. As did Cary Bradcroft, who offered him a spot training with the team. It was at this point that Go Demon announced his return to Japan for a time. It seems his brother was in trouble and he wanted to help out. Bradcroft wished him well. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Cowan was constantly butting heads with Ledge, Straw, or Suede. At least Straw respected him, if not his many off-the-wall views and ways of tackling an issue. Cowan and Lykos bonded nicely however, and Konchuman could see the good in his new teammate. But Cowan vowed he'd wear down Ledge eventually; he felt a right-leaning radical like Ledge was weighing the group down, and if it was him or Ledge leaving, baby, it'd be Ledge.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Ursulin's and Anaximander's visit went well. They had a special dinner at Bradcroft Manor; Ben Renova and Kono Nashida attended. Ben and Kono were getting very close very fast, but she was most intrigued by Ursulin, who'd been suffering a severe cold front in the romance department for years. On a flimsy pretext, she got Ursulin to take her to Mt. Mosaic. Renova was insanely jealous, but propriety won out. At Mt. Mosaic, Lumena and her “Captain Omega” made love for days, basking in each other's company. He asked her to come away with him and his brother and she agreed. Breaking it to Ben was difficult. He challenged Ursulin to a duel, and then realized how foolish he was. He realized how his time with FS Ops had eroded his social skills and his fortune, and so he retired from active duty and devoted himself to his financial empire and began dating again. He was especially interested in his first wife Samantha's sister, Vanessa Mac Art (Samantha gave Ben one child, a son, John Philip "JP" Renova II, b. 1976). Lumena left with the sons of Shun Ti, and in a short time, gave birth to Ursulin's son, whom she named Benjamin Nashida. He went by “Benny”.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Thus the so-called Freedom Squad lost three members in one fell swoop. And their losses in 1977 didn't end there. As the year waned, the killings in Augensburg became a major side case for Cowan. And what – and who – he uncovered – was quite shocking. One night in late October, Cowan, acting on an outlandish hunch, amazingly finally spied the killer dismembering a young girl's body. Cowan didn't realize he was also being followed – by one of FS Ops' newest, eager to make a name for himself: Dane Torrance, aka the Troubleshooter. He and Cowan struggled. Cowan whispered, “Don't ruin this for all of us, man. Do you see who that is?” And indeed, Torrance gasped when he realized the man who committed acts against nature in a seedy flophouse was none other than his own trainer in Freedom Squad Ops - Oregon Powell! Troubleshooter rattled off his feelings. Sullying the heroic name of the Duellist was enough; what the man was doing was too much; and betraying the Squad was beyond the pale. “Your priorities are seriously fucked, man, but you get the gist of it. Good. Let's take him.”</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The two men rushed in on Powell, who calmly explained that he'd been waiting for them. Torrance attacked Powell, who outfought him. Cowan called the police and the Aggregate for back-up. By the time the latter had arrived, Dane Torrance had been beaten down by Powell and Alec was facing off with him. When the police entered, Dane was charged with the murder of the young girl, among other preposterous charges. The police attempted to subdue Cowan but he crashed through an upstairs window and hid out until he saw the cops taking Torrance and Powell in. Then, with his rifle, he assassinated Powell – a clean head shot, then fled. The cops fired, once hitting Alec in the leg. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Aggregate arrived and told the police they'd made a terrible mistake, that Dane Torrance was a government agent on the trail of the Augensburg Slayer. The Augensburg police were hardly sympathetic; all they knew is they saw a black man home invading a middle class white and killing the home owner's neighbor's daughter. The Negro – as they referred to him – had one white male accomplice now wanted for first degree murder. And, their argument went, wasn't Powell a higher ranking cover agent than “the Negro”? Professional jealousy perhaps? Cotton nearly decked the officer in charge but Konchuman held her back.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Alec had collected a file of evidence linking Powell to the murders circumstantially but hadn't wanted to go there, so to speak. He realized he had been a fool to go it alone. Powell had been connected in town and all the police in Augensburg were in his family's pocket – his adopted family, the Powells, that is. Oregon was really the grandson of Biazel Karollus himself, and beneath the charm and chivalry beat a heart pumping with the stench of purest evil.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So Alec was on the run, wounded, and trying to collect himself. Cary Bradcroft paid a personal visit to “Freedom Central”, the fancy new headquarters of FSO,as they colloquially called themselves now (it changed weekly it seemed; 'the Squadron' was another recent favorite). Bradcroft attempted reason with Greer and a REACT liaison called Howard Unsworth. REACT and Freedom Central had issued a formal statement, which was reiterated to Cary: “It saddens us to report that agent Torrance will soon stand trial as the Augensburg Slayer. He apparently had an accomplice, a man identified as petty criminal turned vigilante Alec Duarte, who attacked agent Powell as Powell was attempting to save their captive. Duarte will be tried for first degree murder when apprehended. REACT will assist local police in any way they can to stop this highly dangerous felon.”</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Cary then did something he swore not to do unless absolutely necessary: he mystically mindwiped all of the FSO, the REACT agents involved, and the Augensburg police. He reached out astrally until he found Alec, and sent some of the team to retrieve him and procure medical attention. He had had enough of feeling helpless when such power was at his disposal; Nocturno always told him he was over-cautious about utilizing his gifts.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And so the case dropped. Alec's file made its way to Hallmark PD, who declared Powell to be the Slayer but his murder remained unsolved. Torrance shook off his few days in jail, not quite sure what really happened. He returned to the FSO. And Alec overcame a grave fear: prison. In his teens, while an abused errand boy for his father, Alec was pinched once and served a year in prison. He was 14 and was assaulted twice, until he came under the platonic protection of a fellow inmate, Junius G. Hand, known on the outside as Black Torpedo Ray (b. 1935). Ironically, there is a connection between Ray and the Troubleshooter to be explored in the near future, which ties in with the late Hiawatha Hand. As Cary's spell did not affect the Aggregate, Alec retained his memories of the fateful night he felt sure he might land back in stir.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">III. Readings in Astrology </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Brother Zodiac (Trevor November) became an outspoken nemesis of Freedom Central and all it stood for. No one could discern quite where his loyalties lie or his origins. But one man</span>&nbsp;</span><span style="color: blue; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">was intent on tracking them: Cowan. Zodiac called Orphee deLander's Red Oasis commune home, and wandered Flicker Street as he'd always had, though not quite with his youthful fervor. While Graven Idyll was still preaching from a fiery bull pulpit at times, BZ's approach was smooth. The police and REACT still kept a current file on him. All they could find was that he looked to be in his late 20s, had no real criminal record, and was raised in New Orleans as Trevor November. He first arrived in Flicker Street in 1968, and looked and acted almost exactly the same in 1978. He felt the hope of '68 was draining from the world, that violence saturated society and that society was becoming a police state whose repression in turn fed the brutality: a twisted Ourobouros or Midgard Serpent greedily devouring its own tail.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Many women were attracted to him; many men for that matter. But the first to fall under his wing openly was a haunting young lady of mixed race called Kicia Blessing. While Trevor November frequented Bradcroft Ltd's curio shoppe with Kicia in 1978, Alec was much further south – Libania, where he finally gave his full report to the Marchessa. She was pleased. She was just beginning a physical descent into middle age, but was as voluptuous and charismatic as ever before. Alec felt it was a now or never situation, and so he took the biggest risk of his life. He may as well have inserted his phallus under the chopping block. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">He nervously propositioned his mentor, mother, sensei – was it really so twisted after all? Alec was not prepared for the response he received. The Marchessa took him in her soft arms and kissed him passionately. They ended up sharing a mind-blowing sexual experience, one might say transcendental. The Marchessa knew tantric techniques as well, and so Alec learned quite a lot that fateful day. After a deep sleep, Alec awoke and asked the Marchessa, “What now?”</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">She answered, “the night belonged to us – it always will. But I cannot belong to you, not in the way you want.” Alec understood, and also inquired when Reva would be returning. She'd be 18 now and he wouldn't even recognize her. “No”, declared Marchessa, “ you wouldn't recognize her. And not just in the physical sense. She left here, not a week ago, with some money, and a wagon full of idiots armed to the teeth. And they had quite a pharmacopia. It saddens me.”</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Reva's gotten into drugs and just rides off with arms merchants?? Couldn't you stop them?" “</span></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Could you have stopped them? We may be slightly more than merely human, but how many bullets before we fall?”</span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Point taken”, said Duarte. “I'm – I'm sorry mistress. I forget myself after what happened between us. I won't again”.</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Marchessa stated, “She is a woman now. I cannot fathom the workings of her young mind. My training has made her feel liberated, more empowered than the other girls in the villages. She has a brilliant mind. I'd hate to see it turned to sordid ends, but it is beyond me now. My only consolation is that she will not be the pawn of men with guns and drugs – she will be the one in control. And with what I've taught her – the last thing I said when I called out to her as they drove away was, 'be blessed, Reva'. She replied, 'Reva? Who's that?' She giggled and screamed, 'Now they call me the Magdalene!'”</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">With so much to absorb, and feeling helplessly frustrated, Alec took his leave of the most important woman of his life. “I'll try to sneak by every year or so. And – thanks again – for the night”. And he departed, leaving the proud Marchessa wracked with sobbing. Tears held back a hundred years can't help but be a flood when finally they come.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In Hallmark, Kicia and Trevor were deliriously happy. But there was a naysayer among the audience they drew on Flicker Street. It was Cotton Suede, and as the saying in Flicker Street goes, “Miss Cotton Suede is not to be messed with”. Cotton confronted Brother Zodiac and his young mistress one afternoon in Flicker Street outside the infamous Lucifer Club, most recently done up as a disco by longtime owner Black Torpedo Ray. “What's your bag, man?' she asked Zodiac. “you come off all righteous about the evils of 'The Man' and the joys of 'Cosmic Awakening' - but where are you when folks like me and mine or the Tentacle and his are fighting, with our minds and our bodies, to be free. Truly free.”</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I'm in no cult lady. I am free – a truly free agent out on these streets. Orphee is simply letting me crash at the Red Oasis. You don't dig my setup, that's alright – but I harm none, as the epithet goes, and if I declare a 'side' – be it yours, or the Tentacle's, or even the Pig Squadron – you will be among the first to know. Seems like we should've had this talk ten years ago. But back then, you weren't a part of a group with a gobstopper of a name and a bonafide integrated cast of characters.”</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Cotton grabbed the slim Trevor by his left arm and yanked him up to her. “I'm not making a dent in that pretty head, but so help me I will... Flicker Street belongs to the people, and you've been out there – doin' your moves, turning on some cats and chicks, pulling some Pied Piper shit just like deLander. Except he has the guts to admit it. They call you the 'Grey Messiah', these kids. Like her - “ Cotton points at Kicia, who hasn't said a word. “What happened to the bosomy biker broad you were doin' before her? She get tired of you ridin' her hog?” Cotton laughs loudly. “Well, I've known this beautiful moonchild her whole life, and you're not just gonna step in and crash Kicia's good thing.”</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Kicia replied indignantly, "I'm happy with where I am now, and with who I am, Miss Cotton. You've been like a big sister to me an' I loves you, but frankly, you in my business, an' I don't like it. Just back off an' let us be, okay? You might find I'm not as ignorant about all this as you think I am. If Trevor hurts me, he's gone. An' he knows that. Right?”</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Yes indeed. And that's not going to change”, answered Zodiac.</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Uh huh”, responded Cotton. “Fascinating. Well I'd best be going... and, 'Trevor'?”</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Yeah?”</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I've got my eye on you.”</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Cotton was short, but her hips were wide, and they swayed madly, as she jogged away, soon lost in the bustle of Flicker Street. The woman formerly known as Pauline Cutler had more pressing business with the Aggregate. They were to await Alec's return to Hallmark and then hold a 'membership drive'. The idea was ostensibly Ledge's, though Cary had been pondering it for months, since Cowan first crashed their meeting in January 1977. Straw thought it could be massively entertaining. “Make them come to us for once. Groovy”, he laughed. Konchuman hoped more Asians or Indians would join. He missed Go Demon, now back in Japan, and his fallen friend, Hiawatha Hand.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">IV. Alec's Return Home</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As everyone got situated for the membership drive meeting on October 5, 1978, Cotton and Alec got to talking. She broached the subject of Brother Zodiac and Kicia Blessing. He was visibly rattled by hearing her name. As he nervously smoked, he asked her how Kicia was, and informed Cotton that he hadn't seen her in some time but thought about her. “Well I'd rather her be with you any day than that arrogant - “</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Thomas Ledge interrupted, as he was wont to do. “With Cowan? He's a two-bit loner. Hell, he might not even like chicks for all we know.”</span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Well”, interrupted Straw, “ for all we know, the same could be said for you. I never see this Susan you're so mad about. An invention of your closeted psychosis Ledge?”</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Konchuman and Lykos remained silent, and, as usual, uncomfortable when Ledge trotted out his homophobic assertions. And Straw was insistent on playing right into it.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Ya know what, Miss Suede? Let's talk about Kicia for real sometime. This conversation hardly dignifies her.”</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Straw, impatient, bellowed, “Now you know why we need new blood so badly. A good transfusion could keep us going for years to come, right Ledge?”</span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Might need to ditch the bad blood all in one fell swoop I say. Some of which – Straw – has been curdling since before my time here”. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Straw raised a fist and said, “Regarding old, tired, bad blood, I say, 'Let it bleed...'”</span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Indeed Straw?” said Cary, taking everyone off guard with his entrance and his upbeat countenance. “Well, since my sanguine friends are crying out for the new blood, let me pacify them, as a good host. Bloodthirsty ghouls, meet... the Serpent's Tooth!”</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Who or what is the Serpent's Tooth? Who is the proverbial 'new blood' and will they make the cut? What's the mystery of Kicia Blessing? What is the Lucifer Club? And why the hell does the Aggregate put up with Thomas Ledge anyway? All this and more will hopefully be answered in the next episode of Flicker Street....</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Welcome to Flicker Street!</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Henry Covert</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">October 6, 2015</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Copyright 2015 George Henry Smathers Jr.</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Dedicated to my friends on Google&nbsp;+ and on Facebook who have read and shared this work, especially my friend and collaborator Ivan R. Schablotski.</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Flicker Street, all characters, images, and story elements are Copyright (c) 2015 George Henry Smathers Jr.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><br />Henry Coverthttps://plus.google.com/103990383640616339933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3852574899003991711.post-31809948064379126082015-10-01T04:59:00.000-07:002015-10-24T21:53:21.139-07:00FLICKER STREET Treatment # 12 - Deviations<span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">What seemed like ephemera turned out to be a key chapter. Enjoy!</span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9zaR2WGUNeo/Vg0frb6ABTI/AAAAAAAADHk/qejlfQSt0ko/s1600/Cowan%252C%2BKappy%2BMcCleary%2BDuarte%252C%2B%2526%2BKranz%2BMueller.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="336" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9zaR2WGUNeo/Vg0frb6ABTI/AAAAAAAADHk/qejlfQSt0ko/s400/Cowan%252C%2BKappy%2BMcCleary%2BDuarte%252C%2B%2526%2BKranz%2BMueller.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">FLICKER STREET Treatment # 12 – Deviations</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I. The Pod As Womb </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Omegan and Piscean penchant for “soft conquest” culminated in their vying for Earth. The Omegan Terminus was not a downed alien vessel or a crashed starship. It was however truly a “mothership” in that it contained an Omegan Birthing chamber. It was an extradimensional vessel traveling alchemically; it emerged inside Mt Mosaic based on the mountain's karmic ley lines. Tephiris was not the first, but the first known, Omegan scout and was extremely long lived. He came through the Terminus in a birthing pod, i.e. he was born incarnate on earth. He traveled his homeworld but North America remained his base of operations. He communed with Native Americans and settlers and slaves alike, always assuming a race's form and co-mingling with them all, spreading his seed far. Tephiris was the first newly born Exodesian in centuries – an Exodesian by virtue of the fact that he was the genetic product of pure Omegan seed and Piscean ovum. Tephiris thus was himself an experiment in keeping the peace between the coldly warring races. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Tephiris was the father of the druid Brithemain, born c. 12,000 BCE. Tephiris was born c. 13, 000 BCE and died sometime before Shun Ti's and Asenath-Zayan's births (c. 1500 AD). No Exodesians and few Omegans or Pisceans were as long-lived, i.e. over 14,000 years old. Only the hybrid priests Mordechai and his nephew Gammadion lived nearly as long. In addition to his genetic gifts, Tephiris used many alchemical life extension formulas, to varying degrees of success.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Mt Mosaic was the nexus point aka the “Terminal Pointe” of the truce if you will between the quietly warring races. Tephiris periodically used the pod tech at Terminal Pointe to travel to Omega and to Pisces to report as a scout for both races. The pods he utilized were the basis of the modern tech of the tellax pod that revolutionized human transport, though it only became used commercially in the early 21<sup>st</sup> century. It was plundered by SkullCorp from the tech Ursulin shared in the 1950s, and by the close of the century REACT and the Aggregate (and some of their foes) had access to this incredible teleportation technology.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">To some Exodesians Tephiris claimed to be wholly one of them, and mated with some of their women. In his very old age Tephiris mated with a Frenchwoman named Dominique Chanel. Their daughter, Francoise Chanel, married into the Mercer family. This infused Cromwell's line with stronger Exodesian genes, as Francoise's son Leopold Mercer was also the grandson of the Carnifex. Leopold was also the grandfather of the gunfighter Mercy. Many of the descendants of Cromwell (himself Tephiris' great-grandson) and the great envoy Tephiris had extraordinary abilities; most, however, appeared and lived as human, save for a predilection for unnatural longevity.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When Ish of Omega and Asenath of Pisces were engineered to be the official infiltrators of Earth, Tephiris felt his time had come. He gently slipped away, imbibing moonbrew and ruminating on his thousands of adventures and many descendants on Earth. We shall now examine some of the foremost ones.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">II. For A Few Digressions More...</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The legendary gunfighter Mercy began life in 1843 as Nero Mercer, the son of Napoleon Mercer (the great-grandson of Ewen Cromwell) and Lily Runningwater, a mostly Pawnee Indian and herself a granddaughter of Cromwell's. Besides this, Nero was the great-great-grandson of Tephiris. Mercy was blessed with a retarded aging process, a strong healing factor, and an unerring marksmanship, his favored weapon being a portable Gatling gun. Most though him insane, but few dared square off against this titan of the Old West. Once his hands were crushed; he defeated his enemy regardless but lost his woman. His hands healed fully over a matter of weeks. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Shortly after this, he encountered Shanedo Nakemura, a deciding factor in his life. Nakemura (b. 1823) was known in Japan as the 'Demon Dog' (translated) and was a wandering ronin who took along his young daughter Meiko on his journeys, teaching her all he knew along the way. Shanedo was the deadliest ronin to emerge from Japan in the waning days of the Tokugawa shogunate. He had run afoul of the Pan-Asian fanatical sect, the Hei Naodai, and wished to shatter them into a million pieces. Shun Ti at Feng Qi thought a truce could be arrived at; Kith M'Nali, the “Black Tamerlane”, did not concur and bedeviled Shanedo for a number of years. Shanedo was contracted to come to America in the mid 1860s and retrieve certain stolen Nakemura family artifacts. Shanedo had the feeling Kith had stolen them. Kith had a secret base in America, from which he plotted the end of the then-current US government, as he saw millions of his countrymen still in bondage. M'Nali was a busy man...</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Shanedo faced off with Kith over the artifacts and won. M'Nali begged for his life, the first time he'd done so (though he was very insincere). Then Mercy appeared and shot Kith a number of times. Kith was taken totally unawares, an odd and uncomfortable feeling for him. Shanedo bid him go. M'Nali headed to his base and medical attention. Mercy and Shanedo forged a mutual respect of sorts over this odd incident. Shanedo's daughter Meiko (b. 1850) was immediately taken with Mercy, and he with her. In time, Shanedo came to grips with this. The two men fought together as partners a number of times (including on the steppes of the Ziggurat in 1868), and Shanedo now felt an outcast from Japan. Mercy proposed marriage, and soon he was Shanedo's son-in-law; now family. In 1878, the child Nero Nakemura was born to Mercy and Meiko. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Shanedo had one last mission he wished to fight alone. He returned to Asia, while his daughter, now known only as the Lady Ronin, became Mercy's partner in his increasingly outre adventures. In 1890, word reached Meiko that her father was slain in battle with Kith. Mercy and the Lady Ronin embarked on one last grand adventure, one with a bittersweet climax. After failing to route M'Nali, Meiko announced that she'd be staying in Asia, sometimes at Feng Qi. Her goals were two-fold: to avenge her father, and to further train, and, hopefully, to teach at Feng Qi. She would raise young Nero as a Japanese but would tell him all about his legendary father. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Mercy was devastated. He wandered Europe, alighting in France, where his daughter, La Comtesse de Marangias, held court. La Comtesse had wed one Armand Tressilian and had one infant daughter, Edith, b. 1890, and a son already on the way (This son would grow up to be the legendary Richter). But Mercy was drawn back to the United States and his family there, which essentially amounted to his brother and his brother's family. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">III. Marisol's Odyssey</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Mercy's half-brother was the much-discussed Sorrow, who married the wild Libanian gunfighter Carmelita Rodriguez. She gave him three daughters: twins Luna and Solita are covered elsewhere, but now we turn our attention to Mariposa Marisol Corvo, b. 1877. Marisol inherited Sorrow's unnatural longevity and many of his skills (Sorrow was the grandson of Exodesian Arch-Priest Urias, as established in past chapters, as well as the great-gradson of Ewen Cromwell). Marisol, as she chose to be called then, was a shapely stunner of a girl, but was something of a tomboy. She craved action and excitement. She was proud to come from a family of long-lived gunfighters, and wanted to learn the arts of combat herself, something that did not interest her older sisters. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When she met Mercy's bride, Meiko Nakemura, as a small child, she was staggered by her fighting prowess. A female samurai! Thought Marisol (though Meiko was technically a ronin, i.e. a masterless samurai). She asked Meiko to train her. The Lady Ronin agreed, but it had to be their secret. And so, furtively, they held a number of sessions. This ended in 1890, when Meiko was called away to Asia and never returned. Marisol vowed she'd find her one day and conclude her training with Meiko. Sorrow took good care of his daughter in the meantime. She reached adulthood, a buxom, athletic young woman with a razor-keen mind, and she decided to move to Libania, despite the risk and strife there. Carmelita warned her about Libania and Serafinia, but Marisol claimed she was to become a nun. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Marisol actually made her way to Asia with a cache of gold her father gave her. She struggled, and fought, but she finally reached Feng Qi, based on all she'd been told by Meiko. This was in 1900. She was reunited with Meiko Nakemura, who, as promised all those years ago, resumed training beside her. They trained together for 35 years, neither of them aging appreciably, just getting stronger and more finely honed in their arts. But then Kith M'Nali returned after a time away from Feng Qi. He had been assembling various criminal and revolutionary elements to fall under the Black Skull Society rubric. Marisol and her master encountered Kith one day and they soon began hurling curses at each other. This erupted into a full-fledged duel. Shun Ti, worried, came to watch. She knew by now that nothing could tear them apart. In their pitched combat, the Lady Ronin, sliced off one of the Black Tamerlane's legs. He fought on, hopping, crawling, and spurting blood all about the dojo. In an amazing reversal, he leapt on his single foot and hacked off Meiko's right arm (her sword-wielding one), and, as they both fell and crawled about the floor slick with their blood, he impaled Meiko on his blade. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Marisol was aghast and felt like running up to M'Nali and slitting his arrogant throat. He and his detached limb were spirited away, though. Much later, she learned that certain mystic allies of Kith's were able to re-attach his leg. Another rumor later flotaed about was that Ish used Omegan tech to restore it. This was several years before Ursulin arrived on Earth and began disseminating regeneration tech to a chosen few; of course today it is widely used and has revolutionized medicine.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Shun Ti took over Mariposa Marisol's training (she had ceased going by her surname). Marisol “graduated” to the highest level that Shun Ti could grant her in 1950. Marisol was still a stunning young woman. She wondered if she would age as well as her father, who died at 98 in 1938, but only appeared middle-aged.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">IV. The Marchessa Unbound – and Her Wayward Pupil</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After Mariposa Marisol attained the highest honors Shun Ti could bestow upon her, she gave herself the title “The Marchessa”. It had only taken her 73 years to attain this total mastery of the mystic and martial arts. And this time, she really was determined to return to Libania. There, she founded her own Solacium, patterned after the one Shun Ti would retreat to (and which was an Omegan creation). She gathered agents over the decades and created her own temple. did not establish any particular order for those interested to join. She didn't want to foment another cult in a region reviled for them. She simply taught her eclectic blend of alchemy and martial arts. FOPA raided her on occasion, but they finally ruled that she did indeed fit into their “Freedom of the People' mantra.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Her goal was to train others and to pass on the knowledge she'd received, but so few had what it took. The Marchessa lived a long, lonely life. She yearned to be a lover and an adventurer, not a monk, but such, she felt, was her lot. All of that changed in 1965, when the 88 year old Marchessa, who looked and felt no older than a human woman of 35, found a new purpose. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We must derail our attention from the Marchessa at this point, and return to a character from a past installment. His name was Alec Nicholas Duarte, b. 1948 in Hallmark. He was born a fraternal twin, his brother Julius Antony Duarte born minutes before him. It seemed the two hated each other from birth. Certainly their parents hated them both from their births. The twins' mother, Roxanne Cooper Duarte, was the maternal granddaughter of Hallmark co-founder Ananias de Ruyter. She was also a stripper, a prostitute, and a heavy drinker. Roxanne's mother Eliza severed ties with the de Ruyters when she married Axel Cooper, an attorney for the mob (who, ironically, had married her for her money and family name; now he was supporting her by defending infamous mobsters such as Boston Haverty).</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Roxanne's brother, Elias, was also an attorney, and though a rabid right-winger, he was no criminal. He was rather ugly to Roxanne, and distanced himself from her. Elias had two daughters with Gwyneth Shaw: Susan Cooper (b.1950) and Selena Cooper (b. 1960). Both figure prominently in future narratives. These women were the first cousins of Alec and Julius Duarte, whose father, Antonio “Tony” Duarte (b. 1918), took over organized crime and racketeering in Hallmark by the 1940s, filling the gap left by Boston Haverty's defeat at the hands of the Silent Seven. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Tony Duarte was the worst of the worst: a wife-beating pederast/ pimp/ killer. He gladly prostituted Roxanne while he chased young men new to the mob, his favorite being Marco Allegretti, who just happened to be Roxanne's long-time pimp. She tried to escape numerous times before Marco finally plugged her in the street (Paige Street, to be exact) in 1959. Tony told his boys that their mother was mentally disturbed, and had finally committed suicide.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Everything changed in 1965, the year Alec Duarte met the Marchessa. Tony had arranged a major drug deal in Libania. He loved doing business with the Libanians. He sent one of his up-and-comers, a 25 year old errand boy named Reve Raphael the great-grandson of Hallmark co-founder Guillermo Renova. He assigned Alec and Julius, 17 years old, to accompany Reve. Tony also asked Reve to take Reva, his 5 year old daughter. Reve and Alec were filled with dread; was Tony going to sell the girl into “white slavery” or “kiddie porn”? With Tony Duarte nothing was too low. Julius was amused by it all – and sailing on cocaine.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Tony had heard a rumor that there was a place called the Solacium where all four of these youths could be trained into fighting machines for the drug enforcement arm of Tony's Libanian operation. Julius opted out of the training; he was far too fey for much physical exertion. Reve oversaw the operation, and watched helplessly, Julius' gun trained on him, as he handed over his daughter and Alec to the Solacium. When the drug transaction was completed, Reve flipped out about Reva and Julius shot him to death. Julius and Tony's men left Libania, leaving Alec and Reva with the Marchessa. She thought Tony a fool, as she'd never paid him anything; Duarte simply assumed the Marchessa would train the children for a few years til they could take their places as mob enforcers. Julius was happy, feeling he was finally rid of Alec; Alec's feelings were more than mutual.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The woman once called “Marisol” had no intention to prostitute the children or anything else – except the training part. She became a mother figure to the two youths, though Alec hid well his deep-seated sexual desire for his new mentor. Alec, being older, took far quicker to the more rigorous training. In 1971, after Alec has been with the Marchessa for six years, the Marchessa laid out three mandates for Alec to achieve to prove his worthiness to “graduate” from the Solacium. Reva Raphael's fate shall unfold shortly.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">V. The Three Mandates</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The mandates were odd at first to Alec Duarte. But he soon became excited by the challenge. Here were three opportunities to find catharsis, gain revenge, and right the karma in his own life for the sake of the Marchessa's plans for him. He humbly thanked her, and began planning his take on the mandates. And he wanted her more than ever.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The three mandates were, in order: 1. Draw first blood. 2. Infiltrate and foment chaos. 3. Present yourself before your true peers. These mandates were reminiscent of what Alec had read about the Freemasons and the Knights Templar. Thus he devised a disguise with which he could carry out the mandates.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Late in 1971, Alec Duarte returned to Hallmark. Masked and armed, he broke into Tony's house. Taking out Tony's goons, he made his way to Tony's master bedroom, where Tony and Marco were engaged in some rather bizarre sex acts. Alec slit Marco's throat and smothered Tony with a pillow as he struggled for a gun. He gained the proverbial upper hand, and shot Tony to death through the pillow. Alec took one item from beneath his father's bed and lugged it with him. He calmly, discreetly made his way out the way he came in, just as more of Tony's men arrived. Alec rode away, flooring it just as Hades broke loose at the Duarte stronghold.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Duarte returned to Marchessa. She encouraged him to return to Hallmark, to see what was going on in the streets with people his own age. This disinterested him, but he saw her logic. After the Duarte/ Allegretti killings, Alec waited a good while, continuing his training and using the money in his father's box to buy arms in Libania. He knew he must be well-equipped, even though buying the arms there was something of a contentious conflict of interest for Duarte.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Alec returned to Hallmark in 1973. While hiding out in a dive in nearby Augensburg, Duarte caught a poster advertising a meeting of the Order of Cosmic Emptiness, an obvious takeoff on the Order of Cosmic Awakening. The meeting was to take place in the town of Gossingham, not terribly far from Hallmark. Alec planned to go as a man called simply Cowan. A cowan is an outsider in Masonic and similar traditions. Infiltrating an occult group – pretending to be one of them but actually not – was an amusing irony to Duarte. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Leading the meeting was a cryptic gentleman called Javier. Javier appeared to be a nice fellow – the kind of man a loner like Alec actually wouldn't mind befriending. The absurdist, almost dada, approach to the occult and spirituality empluyed amused Alec beneath his Cowan cowl. No one seemed to find Alec's dress odd; several other attendees wore masks. Towards the end of the meeting, the “special guest” was unveiled – a self-proclaimed sorcerer named Antioch Moldor, flanked by two large bodyguards. Moldor used his time in the spotlight broke out into a rant about the Abstruse, losing Alec completely. And so he took this opportunity to get up, pretend to fall, and as Javier reached out to help him, he used a kung fu move on Javier, flipping him through the air. He pulled a gun, cautioning all to stay back “or you'll all be meeting Abraxas way ahead 'a' schedule!!"</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">He laughed, backing his way out, as Moldor's guards approached. Alec swiftly shot them both, each in the head (Tony Duarte made sure Alec was a top flight marksman through years handling guns before the fateful mission to Libania). Alec hurled himself down a flight of stairs, knocked out a window, and made it to his car. Only Javier seemed to be following him. There was something about Javier, an energy of some kind, that rattled Alec a bit when he flipped the spokesman for Cosmic Emptiness.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The incident made the sometimes irreverent paper <i>The Flicker Street Dispatch</i>, but not the straight-laced major Hallmark rag <i>The Occidental</i>. As for Cowan, he returned to Libania. He continued his regimen having passed the first two mandates. He was glad to see Reva, who was like a sister to him, still serving the Marchessa. He was not glad to see FOPA thugs ogling the 14 year old when she went to market. The Marchessa said it would be roughly three years before Alec, as the Cowan, was ready to present himself to his peers.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In mid 1976, Alec returned to Hallmark. He took a room in the poorest section of town and kept a low profile. Occasionally, reporters would pester him for info on his father and family and their criminal activities. Alec deflected skillfully albeit with little patience. Eventually, his minor celebrity eroded, and he was left alone. He landed a job with Zenith Cab and worked as many hours as he could stand.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">He had a brief alcohol-soaked rendezvous with a fellow cabbie, an older Frenchwoman named Renee Pointier that left Renee heartbroken and cynical. She left town, and, as we have seen with the uber-fertile "Flicker Street Family", predictably she was pregnant. Alec had mistreated her and felt badly, but crime was rampant in the parts of town he most frequented and it obsessed him, as his own family was much to blame, in those days especially Julius Duarte and his lover/master Milo Majestyk, who strove to unite organized crime in Hallmark. What happened to that fuckin' Aggregate? Alec thought, not knowing the government had fractured the group. He decided it was time for the third mandate to play out...</span><br /><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">VI. 1977 </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It was a routine meeting for the Aggregate. They recently lost some members (and some friends on another team); some to death, some to coma, some to defection to Orphee deLander's camp. Only seven remained: Shadow Baron, Thomas Ledge, Euphrates Straw, Cedric Lykos, Cotton Suede, Konchuman, and Go Demon, who was himself debating returning to Japan. Suddenly, alarms went off, and the group mobilized. But it was all for naught. “It's just me, man. I ain't a threat to you. I'm Cowan, and I could just be the best thing that ever happened to this not-so-sensational seven”.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">To Be Continued...........</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Welcome to Flicker Street!</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Henry Covert</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">October 1, 2015</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Copyright 2015 George Henry Smathers Jr.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Dedicated to Philip Jose Farmer, my favorite author. RIP.</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Special thanx to Jason V Brock. He knows why.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Flicker Street, all characters, images, and story elements are Copyright (c) 2015 George Henry Smathers Jr.</span>Henry Coverthttps://plus.google.com/103990383640616339933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3852574899003991711.post-55217708337996948432015-09-28T12:26:00.000-07:002015-10-04T14:17:37.695-07:00FLICKER STREET Treatment # 11 - Liberation<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This chapter covers most of the 1970s, as the Aggregate splinters into various factions. Enjoy!</span></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-b04U3dVsf1o/VgmUGlLm0PI/AAAAAAAADHQ/BCWzNTH36SE/s1600/Wrath%2B%2528John%2BGauvin%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="217" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-b04U3dVsf1o/VgmUGlLm0PI/AAAAAAAADHQ/BCWzNTH36SE/s400/Wrath%2B%2528John%2BGauvin%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">FLICKER STREET Treatment # 11 – Liberation </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I. The Aggregate Revisited</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In a way, the years 1970-1975 constituted a second golden age of sorts for modern heroism, with an international, interracial team who took part in a vast array of fantastic adventures (some to be detailed in future accounts), battling the machinations of SkullCorp, especially those of the “Black Tamerlane” Kith M'Nali (who Thomas Ledge tastelessly called “Black Manchu”) and Phileas Caleb. Urias and Carnifex became partners in the late 70s and especially had problems with Ben Renova. The wicked arch-mage Biazel Karollus and his group the Abstruse, or the Order of the Thaumaturge, encountered the Bradcrofts via the sorcerer Antioch Moldor. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As the curtain fell on 1972, the following individuals' activities fell under the rubric of the Aggregate: Shadow Baron, Nocturno, Snow Archer, Dr. E, Ursulin, Emerson Trent, Euphrates Straw, Thomas Ledge, Cedric Lykos, Hiawatha Hand, Gulliver, The Wrath, and the Blue Dahlia. At the end of the year, revolutionary Arliss Gordon Cope (aka Graven Idyll) came to the group for help in rescuing several of his militant group, including one Cotton Suede (b. Pauline Cutler). The group made it out, except for Emerson Trent, who they were informed had been kidnapped. Shadow Baron offered Graven Idyll a spot on the team, and he acquiesced. Cotton was not invited to join but invited herself along on their adventures several times.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1973 was a year of upheaval and many battles fought; a number of them lost. Trent's captors traded him with Phileas Caleb. Trent finally confronted Caleb mano a mano; In the midst of fisticuffs, which Caleb was losing, Caleb shot up Trent with a massive dose of what Donal Rykards laughingly called “Skull Wine”, a TSD-derived, lethal concoction. It mutated cells as TSD did, but at an uncontrollable rate. Trent did not explode like Dr. E; he merely imploded, and crumbled away. The loss in terms of genius and brotherhood to the Aggregate was inestimable. Euphrates Straw swore his family would personally destroy Caleb. Trent left behind a 14 year old son in Jamaica, Roman Torrance “Oblidiah” Trent, who was determined to learn the truth about why his father left Kingston. Oblidiah was already making music, and would soon record as, and permanently assume the persona of, Ras Free Man.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Carnifex returned after three years to menace the Aggregate, leading a unit against the Aggregate: The Damnation Brigade, which included Pallor (an undead creature, born Lasse Pallor, 1920, d. 1943; resurrected 1943), L'Argent (Claude Mercer, 4x great-grandson of Ewen Cromwell and of Tephiris; an unerring thief and pickpocket; the richest solo criminal in France; and possessed of uncanny resilience and reflexes), Tormenter (Solomon Vossius; covered elsewhere), Vigil and Parrish (“Elijah Pike” and Price Parminter, two religious fanatics with mysterious pasts who received TSD enhancement while in prison; incredibly powerful), and Zhey (master martial artist Zhey Liao; half-brother of Archimedes Ko and descendant of Shun Ti). The brainchild of Antioch Moldor, a powerful sorcerer and disciple of Biazel, the Damnation Brigade plagued the Bradcrofts' “superteam” on and off for four years, and slew Gulliver in their very first attack on the Aggregate.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">II. New Blood</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In 1974, Dr. E's containment suit began to unravel in the midst of fighting Parrish and he exploded; Parrish was destroyed; Blue Dahlia was believed to be dead as a result. Lykos was badly injured but healed. REACT declared Dr E too dangerous and now under their purview; he was taken away. Paige learned the truth she had long suspected – that E was Evan Eloy Queeq, her ex-lover and Kyle Fabricand's father. Kyle sat on the board at Skull at this point. Paige tried to see Queeq to no avail, angering the Bradcrofts. Cary confronted Kyle, and they soon fought, a quite uneven match, with Cary's parting words stating he'd spare Kyle's life “only because you are Paige's son”. In January 1975, Nocturno went to the man who masterminded the wife and child-swapping Paige endured – Artemus Thorne. Their confrontation escalated, until Nocturno wiped out Thorne utterly. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Cary told Ashton that Nocturno's powers, and those of Dr. E, were out of control, and that the Aggregate needed to keep a lower profile in order to persevere. REACT and the government were seemingly aware of everything they did, despite the Bradcroft's mystic safeguards. With this, Nocturno left - left Cary, the group, America... everything, and was gone until 1982. He was working on a project – a magickal working that was to be his crowning achievement, and thus left the Aggregate to Cary to lead (with the aid of his field commanders, Brandon ver Dorn and Euphrates Straw).</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Cary immediately began securing new allies. In early 1975, The multi-powered martial-arts motorcyclist Konchuman (Ishiro Nakamura) and his 19 year old cousin, known as Go Demon, joined. Go Demon (Jiro Nashida, b. 1955) was the child of the brilliant professor Kenji Nashida, who began working with SkullCorp in the 1950s. His daughter Kai Nashida caught the eye of Kong and they had a child, known as Lumena, who plagued the Aggregate in the late 70s. Konchuman's father was Shiro Nakamura, half-brother of Kenji Nashida. The brothers were the grandsons of the legendary gunfighter Mercy and his passionate lover, the “Lady Ronin”, Meiko Nakamura. Kenji had been a colleague of Trent's and offered his son and nephew (both of whom had been participants in TSD trials) to work for the Aggregate, much to Skull's, Caleb's, and Rykards' chagrin. Cary swore he would safeguard the cousins.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Shadow Baron approached Deacon Thrush (born Bishop Mercer, a cocaine dealer and martial artist who was yet another descendant of Carnifex), who came up under Graven Idyll's wing, to round out the team. Thrush had just scored big, and then moved to Europe for a time, leaving behind Cotton Suede, not knowing that she was pregnant with their son. Cotton swore if Bradcroft could wait for her to give birth, and for her to find family to help raise the child, she would fight for the Aggregate for as long as they needed her – or unto death. Shadow Baron gladly agreed to these terms. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">III. Lords of Liberty</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In 1975, President Ford and REACT unveiled Freedom Ops. Ford was famously quoted as saying, “Our long national nightmare is over.... Now we are wide awake – and the American dream has a bright new lease on life”. It was announced that REACT and other agencies would be “employing a highly trained team of exceptional individuals to curtail threats foreign and domestic that regular intelligence agencies can't touch.” REACT “drafts” almost half of the Aggregate: Snow Archer (whom they rechristen the White Archer, to Brandon's chagrin), Dr. E (somewhat recovered), Wurm, The Wrath, and Ursulin (who they wish to keep the closest tabs on). Thomas Ledge, surprisingly, was not selected but was told that his REACT insider status in the Aggregate was invaluable.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The US rounded out their “sensational seven” (President Ford's epithet) with Jim April, the Flare (a token black member), and millionaire Roger Greer, otherwise known as Liberty Lord. They were trained intensively on working together and nicknamed the “Freedom Squad”, though only the wealthy, super-powered but daft conservative Greer took a shine to the name.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Roger Anthony Greer was a very wealthy man whose positions had been handed to him with little sweat. He was what we would call a “legacy hero”, i.e. someone carrying on the name and persona and symbology of a deceased or retired hero before them. The original Liberty Lord was actually a failed, deeply flawed hero who nonetheless tried to do the right thing. He was Clarke Ledge (son of Kong [though he knew it not] and brother of Thomas Ledge, who was aghast that he wasn't chosen for Freedom Ops), a closeted homosexual teacher who was born in 1934 in Lincoln, Nebraska – not the place nor era to be outwardly gay. Clarke Ledge suffered at the hands of his father, brother, and peers, and remained very closeted as a gay man for many years. In the early 1960s, inspired by the Silent Seven's exploits, he moved to Hallmark, complete with teen sidekick “Pronto” (Luis Esteban, the son of Clarke's gardener and a boy thrown out of his house when his homosexuality was discovered), whom he had trained rigorously. Clarke had served in the Korean War with his brother Thomas, though he detested institutionalized slaughter. Clarke boasted superhuman strength and agility, as did Thomas. Kong's genes were strong in Clarke as well. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The two fought crime, rather sloppily, in the early 1960s in Hallmark as Lord Liberty (as opposed to Lady Liberty, obviously) and Pronto. Pronto was often injured in battle, and Clarke tended to him as best he could. Their family doctor was suspicious of the two young men living together, even with Luis ostensibly Ledge's live-in stable boy and gardener. Clarke decided to move to nearby, quieter Gossingham and buy a generous spread. Alas, he counted not on the plethora of rednecks in Gossingham. Clarke decided he should be married and have a child. Pronto was extremely jealous.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In 1964, LL and Pronto were approached by Cary Bradcroft about being charter members of the Aggregate. Bradcroft divined their situation and told them they would be under protection for their homosexual relationship. Clarke blew up and he and Pronto denied being gay, and informed Bradcroft that they would handle crime as a duo, as they'd always done. Bradcroft admonished them that their days could be numbered...</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And indeed, in 1965, Pronto was killed in a vicious scrap with four raging homophobes while Clarke was at work one day. Luis Esteban was barely 19. Clarke hunted down the scum that had slain his lover and with his immense strength killed all four. He left Gossingham when suspicion began to turn in his direction. He moved back to Hallmark and wed Sadie Palmer, a well-off wallflower of a girl (and the first cousin of Brandon ver Dorn). He again turned down Cary's offer to team up. Instead, he debuted as Liberty Lord with a brand new costume, and brutally dispatched criminals at night, usually beating them just short of killing them. He and Sadie raised a foster child for a few years, Damon Carroll (from 1965-1969), and Clarke encouraged him to be a chiropractor, which Damon ultimately did. Damon never learned that Clarke was gay, though Sadie found out in the early 70s and began seeing a psychotherapist.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But what fascinated Clarke Ledge the most was the company he'd gotten a job with – SkullCorp, where he worked in entertainment advertising. As the years went by, and his marriage began to dissolve, he became obsessed with tracing every aspect of Skull's operations. In 1974, he accidentally unlocked a computer code to a computer far more advanced than what he was accustomed to. This machine, extrapolated from Omegan technology years earlier, laid out the inner circle of Skull. The program was filled with disinformation in case someone cracked it, as had happened once before (to be covered in future chapters), but the basic structure was accurate, enough for Liberty Lord to take the info to Shadow Baron. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And then he was shot point blank in the back of the head and left for dead. Fortunately, he had been followed by Roger Greer, also highly distrustful of Skull, though still trafficking with them. Greer found the dying Ledge, who murmured some indecipherable verbiage, as well as, “Now you can be Liberty Lord. They know about me...Don't let them...”</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Much transpired over the next year. Roger Greer was of genetic prime stock; he was a 3x great-grandson of Carnifex through the Paiges. He wasn't as strong as Clarke, but he trained himself mercilessly for months. Still ostensibly on good terms with Skull, he asked if he could volunteer for TSD. TSD experimentation was at an all-time low, Skull having gathered as much info for now that they felt germane. So Roger bought his way in. His procedure was very safe and streamlined; not like the days of Queeq and deLander.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">He emerged, physically a man of Olympian proportions. He was also smarter, though his septic political leanings mitigated much of his intellect. He decided the only way to stop Skull was through REACT. He never thought twice about approaching the Aggregate. Greer left his wife Angela and young daughter Kelsey (b. 1972), setting them up for life financially, and offered his services to REACT. He scored the highest on the team training tests (Ursulin held back; he had no desire to lead) and was nominated the first chairman of Freedom Ops. A few more months of training together and 1976 – the nation's bicentennial – would herald the first mission of what Roger Greer called “Liberty Lord and the Freedom Squad”. And, to clarify, at this point, Greer's companies still worked with SkullCorp. Conflicting interests indeed...</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">IV. Shifting Paradigms</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Around the time Cotton Suede took her place with the Aggregate, another female member signed up. This was Silent Indigo, Nocturno's “alchemical child”. Cary knew Ashton did not want his daughter in the team, but she was in a torrid, intermittent affair with Orphee deLander, the Absurd Tentacle, who persuaded her to be his “inside woman” in the Aggregate. Cary hoped that eventually he could make a firm alliance with the Tentacle.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Cary trained the mute Indigo in the mystic arts, honing and refining her talents over the following months. Then, the team was confronted by Brother Zodiac, who now seemed more a nemesis than an ally. It was learned that Zodiac was raised in New Orleans as Trevor November. It was unknown what his place and date of birth were. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Graven Idyll and Cotton Suede were making headway in their war on the mob, often clashing with the urbane Milo Majestyk, the head of the mob in Hallmark. Majestyk succeeded as "godfather" the sadistic Tony Duarte, who had twin sons: Julius and Alec. Julius Duarte was content to live a decadent life, merely waiting for Milo to be executed by the law or by his rivals. Alec ran away as a teenager, having had enough of his gangster father and prostitute mother, Roxanne Cooper Duarte. Alec Duarte's story will be expanded upon in future chapters.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In 1976, while a few of the Aggregate were dealing with a kidnapping case of appalling proportions, an attempt was made on the life of Thomas Ledge. The would-be assassin was not found out. The “kidnappings” turned out to be a voluntary exodus of Flicker Street youths to a bizarre commune which engaged in “happenings” designed to purge oneself of accrued psychic trauma and to begin to heal psionic scar tissue. These performance art like rituals were filmed by the ringleader, Kranz Mueller, who turned out to be the seemingly late Dahlia Mueller's father. Kranz was raising his granddaughter Kappy McCleary in this highly charged environment. Konchuman was instrumental in rescuing Kappy, and Ledge helped reunite her with Dahlia's ex-husband Keefer McCleary. Kranz was held on charges, along with his daughter Eva Mueller (Dahlia's sister) and Eva's lovers Nels Vorchett and Elrod “Fenris” Sebastian. During the trial, another attempt on Thomas' life was carried out; again he survived, albeit badly wounded this time. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The mistake made was in thinking that the assailant was tied in with Kranz Mueller's Psycho-Situationist Theatre “cult”. In reality, the threat to Ledge was of a much more personal nature. Ledge was stalked and baited with notes upon his release from the hospital. One note was empty save for a photograph of a woman, Adora White, who Thomas had a teenage affair with. Adora was dead, the last he'd heard. But she left a widower, Desmond Daltrey, and a son, Jericho.Thomas flew to the Mid-West to confront Desmond. Desmond explained that his son had been killed in Vietnam and he couldn't help Ledge any further. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Jericho Daltrey was, in fact, a black ops agents for REACT since 'Nam and was indeed alive – after a fashion. A landmine had nearly killed him, but REACT rebuilt him with highly advanced cybernetic technology cribbed from SkullCorp, as well as Omegan regenerative tech that they now possessed. Jericho Daltrey learned while at REACT that he was the biological son of Thomas Ledge. Jericho himself was divorced and his son by Jamice Albrecht was named Desmond “Dez” Daltrey II (b. 1965). </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The members of the Aggregate broke up Kranz Mueller's group and returned the minors involved to their homes. Cary found it ironic given how young the members of the Aggregate were when they began their respective careers. An explosion rigged to kill Ledge caught the Aggregate unaware. Hiawatha Hand was killed. Euphrates Straw and Cotton Suede were badly injured. Konchuman was partially dismembered, but his TSD Recombinant mutation has utilized some cybernetics and he was able, much like Jericho, to be reconstructed and healed. Go Demon pursued a man Lykos spied on an adjacent rooftop. Lykos climbed on the back of Jiro Nashida's motorcycle and the two were hot on the saboteur's heels when Silent Indigo appeared. She had homed in on his body energy and trailed it unfalteringly. She knocked the startled man off a rooftop and he suffered a nasty fall that would've killed a normal human. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But Jericho Daltrey was no longer a “normal human”. He feigned unconsciousness, and was taken away by a hospital, followed by REACT vehicles. The REACT agents on the street obfuscated everything that happened. When Thomas Ledge arrived, with credentials, the REACT men identified Jericho Daltrey as Ledge's stalker – and told Thomas that he was Daltrey's father. They also claimed Jericho was dead, and informed Ledge that the crimes against him and the others were solved, and that the case was closed. Ledge was forced to believe the story, as he still trusted REACT, but Shadow Baron and Silent Indigo knew that Jericho was alive, though they could only trace him so far. Daltrey was alive, but the hero Hiawatha Hand was deceased, and Cotton, Straw, and Ishiro were nearly so. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">V. Kong's Last Claim?</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">No sooner had the Aggregate recovered from the Daltrey incident than Kong the Claimer issued to them a bold decree: he invited them to Castle Kong, his fortress in Germany, to hold a twisted New Years ceremony. There, he swore, the final battle between them would transpire. The year 1976 was waning, Jimmy Carter had won the presidency of the United States, and the so-called “Freedom Squad” was entrenched in foreign affairs. They spent much time ostensibly sabotaging the efforts of FOPA in Libania, while Skull was filling Libanian coffers with enough money to commit terrorist acts all across South America. Serafinia was finally conquered by FOPA, with the help of drug and arms money supplied by Skull's business end. Though to the average American, Skull was largely an entertainment conglomerate. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Freedom Ops planned to deal with two major threats in 1977 and were “too busy” to loan any help to the Aggregate against Kong. As for the Aggregate, they were now boasting their most eclectic lineup (even after Hand's death): Shadow Baron, Thomas Ledge, Euphrates Straw, Graven Idyll, Cotton Suede, Konchuman, Go Demon, Cedric Lykos, and Silent Indigo. Cary Bradcroft felt it was time to recruit for the scenario with Kong, but there was no time to adequately train new members. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Freedom Ops had acquired two new members: one was The Duellist, a “legacy” hero. The original Duellist had been, of course, a woman, Sidonie van Kant Vossius. This new Duellist was a man named Oregon Powell, who had toyed with names such as Cavalier and Rapier but decided to honor the celebrated pulp era heroine. Oregon Powell had a deep, dark secret in his past; he was raised by Duke Powell as his own son, but Oregon was actually the child of the inscrutable Clarissa Rushmore, who was another offspring of Biazel Karollus. Powell's true father was Lawrence Rubinstein, a Jewish scientist and authority on Omegan technology, who Clarissa seduced while he was in college. So the new Duellist had a sliver of the demonic in him, which we will explicate upon shortly.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The second new member was known as Solus. Solus had spent his life as a virtual human guinea pig. He was bred carefully; his parents selected with much deliberation. He was born in 1947, name unknown, parents classified. As a child, he began the TSD treatments (at the same time as the experiments conducted on Evan Eloy Queeq). Urias oversaw Caleb's and Rykards' experiments on him (Rykards was even inspired by the project to perform TSD on his own children). By 1977, he was the most powerful TSD “graduate”, with power beyond that of Dr. E or the Absurd Tentacle. Could he be controlled? was the burning question for REACT, now that they had acquired him from Skull. In return, REACT was to be hands off in Skull's global interests. REACT, of course, broke the deal. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Returning to the Aggregate.... Shadow Baron led his team on New Years 1977 to Castle Kong, totally unsure what to expect. As it turns out the surviving inner circle of Skull was waiting: Urias, Kyle Fabricand, Kith M'Nali, Phileas Caleb, and Donal Rykards. This was the first time the Aggregate had actually met Donal Rykards face to face. Bradcroft's team defeated all of them, except Urias, who they managed to keep at bay until Thomas Ledge could make his way to Kong. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In Kong's inner chamber, he was clad in elaborate armor and awaiting Ledge. Ledge smashed his armor and in a blood rage hurled him from the highest parapet of Castle Kong. His body washed ashore as the Aggregate made their way to the coastline. The Skull inner circle buried Kong and held an elaborate ritual as a kind of wake; the aggregate was not invited. They were assured, however, that Kong the Claimer was, indeed, in fact, at long last deceased. He was buried next to his half-brother Coyle. Thomas Ledge was still unaware that Kong was his father. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">VI. The Plunder of Libania</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Forced into a temporary “ceasefire” with SkullCorp, the frustrated, wounded, and frankly depressed team returned to America. Kong's death was bittersweet – a pyrrhic victory it felt like to the team. Then, once home, Silent Indigo announced her departure to go and live with Orphee at his Red Oasis (his chateau based on his that of his grandfather Richter). Graven Idyll also bowed out of the team, after giving it his all for five years. He was also swayed by deLander, as well as by his on and off affair with Fiora Charme. Cary Bradcroft began actively seeking out new blood for the team; he also decided that the team was too structured. He felt if members had more freedom they would be more likely to stay around longer. He decided that Bradcroft Manor was too limiting an HQ, and, sizewise, began thinking more along the lines of Freedom Central, where Freedom Ops hung their cowls – save that Cary never intended such a militaristic milieu. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And where was Freedom Ops while all this was going down? They were battling for their lives against the being called Deomond, the Exodesian uncle of Urias and physically the most powerful of all Exodesians. Dark alchemy had fortified him through his long life, and he was a veritable force of nature. Freedom Ops found him at the Ziggurat in Libania, where he declared himself king and defied the Libanian and Serafinian armies. What caused him to make such a move is simple: Urias requested it. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Squad” had been investigating a rash of murders in Augensburg (just outside Hallmark County). They were apparently politically motivated in some twisted way, almost like the infamous Maddox Family slayings of 1969 in California. In the midst of this case, they were called to South America to stop Deomond.</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The battle was swiftly joined. Deomond attacked Dr E, who detonated, killing a number of Libanians and Serafinians. 21 years old Corporal Diaz Montaldo of FOPA witnessed this, and, as we shall see, the carnage visited on his people by the battles between “heroes” and “villains” left a deep and abiding impression on Montaldo. For one of the Serafinians was his lover Concepcion. Deomond grievously injured Wrath, the Duellist, the White Archer, and Liberty Lord, who refused to back down despite missing an arm. Only Dr E and Solus could stand against Deomond, and, as noted, Dr E's bid backfired – quite literally. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Solus brought to bear all he had against Deomond, blasting him again and again with his solar radiation bursts and engaging him in hand to hand combat. Solus created a containment bubble around the two of them and he and Deomond fought a long, bloody fight. In the end, Solus released all of his energy on Deomond, incinerating him. The bubble barely lasted but just long enough for a quite literally burnt-out Solus to collapse.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">REACT back-up was everywhere all at once, spiriting away the wounded and dying “Freedom Squad”. Dr. E was contained and recovered swiftly. The man called Solus expired, his inert body next to the ashes of Exodesia's greatest warrior. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Coming soon on these pages: The Aggregate: the Next Generation? Who lives and who dies in Freedom Ops? Who is the serial killer of Augensburg? Who was Solus really? All this and more will be answered in the upcoming treatment “Extrapolations”.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Welcome to Flicker Street!</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Henry Covert</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">September 28, 2015</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Copyright 2015 George Henry Smathers Jr. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">To my blood brothers Sean Lee Levin, Michael T Jones, Scott Moseley, Mark Baranowski, Tim McLain, Bill White, and Gary Sondergaard.</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">To all my buddies in the Wold Newton community: it couldn't happen without you guys.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In loving memory:</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Thomas S. Davis 1966-2004</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Christopher A. Pack 1968-2013</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Flicker Street: all characters, images, and story elements are Copyright (c) 2015 George Henry Smathers Jr.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><br /><br />Henry Coverthttps://plus.google.com/103990383640616339933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3852574899003991711.post-86699005324125283542015-09-19T20:07:00.002-07:002017-09-13T12:58:00.499-07:00FLICKER STREET Treatment # 10 - Thaumaturgy<span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">And so we come to a key chapter in our ongoing narrative....</span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-t0ATmxLi7Gg/Vf4ibu93ucI/AAAAAAAADG0/WEVeabFYGjI/s1600/Kirillian%2BCreed%2Bhikes%2BMt.%2BMosaic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-t0ATmxLi7Gg/Vf4ibu93ucI/AAAAAAAADG0/WEVeabFYGjI/s400/Kirillian%2BCreed%2Bhikes%2BMt.%2BMosaic.jpg" width="286" /></a></div><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Flicker Street Treatment #10 – Thaumaturgy</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">I. Dark Roots</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Now we take a sharp turn to the left – the Left Hand Path, as it were. This attempt to document the tangled genealogies and fantastic exploits of those who practice magick in this world we are building will hopefully clarify rather than obfuscate. This can be done by tracing the lineage of our thaumaturgical tree, and describing the strange fruit it bears.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">At the topmost branch (or deepest root depending on one's perspective) are the Presences, those beings worshiped by the Pisceans as dark gods. There are only a handful of these beings glimpsed in certain accounts. The most powerful of these are “brothers” Abraxas and Vaikuntha, offspring of the abstruse Presence whose name can only approximately be rendered as Xhuquaqua-Quoeln (the Tamerlane line in recent centuries supposedly adopted “Qua” as a family name in obeisance to this abstract being). This fearsome Presence gave birth through parthenogensis. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Vaikuntha has no known true offspring (though in an avatar form he impregnated a woman once, then jumped consciousness into the soulless infant body, was born, and swiftly aged the child's body back to a facsimile of the older Vaikuntha). Despite his general lack of emotional of sexual ties to other beings, the malevolent Being has spent more time on Earth than any other Presence, and is especially fond of Earth. When Vaikuntha is glad, Earth is his dominion. When the multi-limbed Presence – a diety among many men – is in sour disposition, the Earth quakes beneath his fury. He is sworn enemy of all humans and Exodesians alike. Vaikuntha draws his name from the Heavenly abode of Lord Vishnu in Hindu religion; his true appellation has been forgotten by his own design. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Abraxas is a fearsome and oblique Presence. He takes his name from an ancient Greek Gnostic prinicle or entity. Abraxas has a number of descendants through his three known offspring: the Presences Caprice, Thrall, and Demiurge. These issue of Abraxas and one of his mates, Shahava, number among the eldest living beings in the known realities. Who knows how many issue sprung from these three over the millenia? We shall examine a handful shortly.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">We know from previous accounts that the earliest contact with long-lived alien, or extradimensional beings, on Earth took place c. 20,000 years ago, or 18,000 BCE. The Omegans and and Pisceans converged on Earth at that time at the place known as Terminal Pointe in English, on Mt. Mosaic on the North American continent. Thence, they began their alchemical mating experiments in Africa, which in several generations yielded the hybrid race the Exodesians. The Omegans, under the direction of pilot Ph'nath, also emerged on Earth nearly as long ago, at a Ziggurat in South America – in a territory whose “ownership” has been fought over by the indigenous peoples of Libania and Serafinia for centuries. Shortly after Ph'nath's arrival, a Piscean envoy appeared to keep the peace, as it were. And so the balance of Earth's fate was struck. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">The Presences (except Vaikuntha as noted above) on occasion mated with humans and Exodesians (pardon if the information given hence is repetitive; it merely stands to set the bloodlines in a greater context). The earliest such mating occurred in relatively modern times, i.e. in the CE period as we measure time in the West. The eldest of Abraxas' terrible litter was the Demiurge, a frightful being invoked only sparingly in the Piscean clusters. Demiurge mated with an Exodesian princess consecrated to him, Ayazela of the house of the priest Tyrlus. and their offspring was a being called Tyrlus Drexus, another entity sworn to make those of Earth bend the knee or pay the ultimate price. Drexus is called on and worshiped as was his father by Exodesians and human magi alike.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">The next two matings of the children of Abraxas the Abstruse (as he came to be called by modern occult scribes, who also dubbed Abaraxas' cult followers as simply 'The Abstruse' or 'the Order of the Thaumaturge'; alternately 'The Order of the Cosmic Awakening') occurred significantly later than the birthing of the fearsome Tyrlus Drexus. Abraxas' daughter, known as Caprice, was what some men might dub a succubus, though she was far from that. She seduced and was bonded to a man born of a human father, Izaiah Karollus (a Jewish kabbalist, b.c. 1314) and an Exodesian maiden Tarish (b.c. 999) This man, Lucius Karollus, b. 1353) impregnated Caprice, and their only offspring was called Biazel Karollus (born 1387), a prime mover in magickal events on Earth – some might say <i>the</i> prime mover . </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">It's difficult to determine how many offspring Biazell may have fathered in his seven centuries on Earth, but three, all by different mothers, figure definitively in our larger narrative. Biazel had settled in Hallmark in 1898, bent on accessing its mystic ley lines and Mt. Mosaic (he had tried in the past but been defeated). He appeared to be an elderly Victorian dress-clad dandy. He founded the cults and covens collectively known as 'The Abstruse' and churned out many scholarly and some rather light-hearted tomes on ritual magick and thaumaturgy. He kept his background prior to Hallmark shrouded in rumor and legend.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">In 1899, he wed the headstrong intellectual Alanna ver Dorn (b. 1869; the “old maid” daughter of Hallmark co-founder Ambrosius ver Dorn, himself half-Exodesian), who gave birth to Biazel's wickedly beloved daughter, Velupsa Karollus, in April of 1900. The child, however, was declared still born and Alanna sued successfully for divorce from the unflappable Biazel. Biazel simply raised his child in secret, with a succession of surrogate mothers, molding her into a thaumaturgical weapon.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">II. The Fabricands and the Avrils</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">The perennially youthful and seductive Velupsa Karollus had only a handful of known partners, but that was enough to secure the mystical dynasties of the Avrils and the Fabricands. In 1928 Velupsa wed Smith Fabricand (1906-1956) offspring of Hercule Fabricand, b. 1881; and Artemisia Smith). In 1930 Smith and Velupsa begat their elder son John Paul Fabricand, who married Paige Bradcroft (another descendant of Cormac Llewyn Paige and his son Miles, co-founders of Hallmark). They had no issue of their own but raised Kyle , Paige's son by Evan Eloy Queeq, as theirs (much to the boy's ultimate detriment).</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">In 1936, Velupsa and Smith had Anatole Fabricand, a man much less mystically inclined towards the mystic arts. Anatole actually became a psychoanalyst and spent years as an analyst to the so-called “mystery men”. He encouraged his daughter, Tabitha, b. 1967, to follow suit in the field of mental health. Tabitha's mother, Edwidge Avril, also hailed from a mystical background, her parents being the mage Keegan Avril (1900-1956), descendant of Exodesians. Tabitha did indeed become a clinical psychologist, against the urging of her stepfather Rudolph Dawes (Edwidge divorced Anatole shortly after the birth of their second child and married Dawes, with whom she had a tempestuous relationship). Tabitha's sister Urania, born in 1974, the gifted offspring of an Avril and a Fabricand, is among the most precocious and awe-inspiring of young magickal talents. Velupsa's blood certainly courses in her veins. As it does strongly in her uncle, the man born Damon Karollus in 1956, but most commonly known as Dr. Damon Carroll, or, in certain circles, as “The Serpent's Tooth”. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">The divorced Velupsa welcomed a man she was deeply attracted to, the Skull executive Bromley Chamberlain, into her coven of the Abstruse and into her bed in 1956. At this point only a handful knew Chamberlain's true ID as Kong, notably the Exodesian arch-priest Urias. By 1956, Velupsa had driven Kong near madness with her lust, her demands, her overpowering persona – but she gave birth to Damon, his son. Only Urias knew the truth for decades; Kong did not, nor did his son. Damon Carroll ended up in a foster home and Velupsa took her own life (in 1958) on a twisted dare from Kong, who distanced himself as much as possible from Biazel and his cult for many years. Damon went on to play a key role in the history of the Aggregate, and finally learned the identity of his true father.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Regarding the Avrils, their line in America began with the French Raoul Avril (b. 1872) and his Scottish wife Martine Keegan, whose line could be traced back to much Pictish breeding with Exodesians. Their son Keegan (1900-1956) wed Astrid Janssen, Astrid was the daughter of Bjorn Janssen, child of Cormac Llewyn Paige (though only Ewen Cromwell knew this) and Cormac's other Indian lover Mary Cloud. Bjorn was passed off as Mary 's husband Stole's son. Astrid's mother was also mostly American Indian; her name was Hester Hand, and her relative, Hiawatha Hand, joined the Aggregate in 1971. And so Astrid Janssen was the great-granddaughter of Ewen Cromwell. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Keegan had a brother Quint Avril, b. 1910, who was a persistent foe and rival of Vance Orlison. Keegan himself, with Astrid, had Raoul Avril II, b. 1934; Egon Avril, b. 1938; Charmain Avril, b. 1942; and, lastly, Edwidge Avril, b. 1947. Raoul wed Wanda Jimenez, the half-Latino, half-African-American daughter of the Avrils' servant Betty Jimenez. They married very young, and their interracial union scandalized a number of Hallmark's blue bloods, but they remained together for many years. They had a son, James Avril, born 1952, who became an Air Force test pilot. James, however, distanced himself slightly from his parents and identified himself as “Jim April”. April became a trial subject for REACT-subsidized TSD experimentation in the 1970s. SkullCorp had struck a deal to share some of their technology with REACT, who added its benefits to America's ever-growing arms race. The TSD gave Jim April what he called “the Flare” (which he also took to calling himself), an ability to control flame. He was conscripted to duty for REACT in 1976, at the launch of their “Liberation Ops” program (also known as “Freedom Ops”, a name preferred by its nominal leader Roger Greer). This program was intended to birth a government-owned and sanctioned group along the general lines of the Aggregate. More information on Freedom Ops will be detailed in upcoming treatments.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Raoul and Wanda Avril tried unsuccessfully to have more children over the years, while Raoul's brother Egon married archaeologist Stephanie Ransom. They had two sons, Karl Raoul Avril, b. 1964, and Jesputh Ransom Avril, b. 1967. Stephanie was a partner in Randell Coventry's Coventry Expeditions, which merged with Bradcroft Ltd. In 1982. Keegan Avril's first daughter, buxom beauty Charmain Avril, was an exotic dancer, and was quite a superstar in the 1960s and 1970s. She remained single until 1982, when she retired and married Dr. Lawrence Rubinstien. Keegan's youngest daughter Edwidge's marriage and offspring have been discussed above. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Keegan Avril and Smith Fabricand met their demise together in 1956 at the hands of Nocturno. They had been plotting against Cary Bradcroft since his move to Hallmark early that year. They wished to garner the attention of the Exodesian ruling religious sect, the Obscuros (from which the Abstruse gains much of their knowledge, passed down from Piscean principles) by slaying the “one that got away”, Cary Bradcroft. They offered to sacrifice Cary to the Obscuros, actually. The Arch-Priest and Grand Necromancer, Urias (discussed elsewhere in this chronicle), was all in favor of the idea. When Avril and Fabricand tried to capture Cary, Nocturno appeared and simply destroyed them with a powerful working he had been preparing for the dangerous duo for some time. Cary was stunned at Nocturno's first use of his undead power to take human lives, and girded himself for a war with other mages that never came. For Nocturno's actions served as an unequivocal statement that the Shadow Baron was not to be trifled with. Thus a magickal cold war of sorts began that lasted for some years, until Exodesian priests craving power caught the attention of the brothers Bradcroft.</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Before his demise, Smith had remarried, to Patricia Paige, daughter of Miles Paige II and Blanche Westin. Their daughter, Milicent Sherrad Fabricand, born 1954, grew up to be a very kind, maternal woman who ultimately helped the Aggregate immensely and tried more than once to settle down with two of its most prominent members. &nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">III. The Disraelis and the Van Jusses</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">The Bradcrofts have been much-discussed up until now, but their many notable offspring and extended families have yet to be covered. To understand the roots of these families, we must consider one Janos Disraeli. Disraeli's origins are uncertain. It is known that he is European, of an indeterminate age, and the father of two children by two different wives. What is certain is that for a time, he was possibly Earth's most fearsome sorcerer, with power to rival or exceed that of the Bradcrofts, Biazel Karollus, or any Exodesian. He surely carries the blood of Exodesia, Omega, or Pisces or is of some descent from one of the Presences. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Disraeli led the Order of Gammadion, an ancient secret society founded by a man said to be descended from the eldest known Exodesians. Gammadion was a priest who lived at least 10,000 years ago and was the maternal grandson of the druid Brithemain, who at one point guarded the Ziggurat in South America. Brithemain was the son of a human tribeswoman, Salvara, a Serafinian, and the ancient Exodesian explorer named Tephiris, who criss-crossed our planet in his Pod in antediluvian times and spread his seed far. He waged war, but yearned for peace, with the Exodesians. Gammadion's uncle, Mordechai, was a member of Gammadion's order, a warrior priest who may have been the longest lived man ever born on Earth. In 1498 CE, Mordechai had his last known dalliance with a mortal woman – a barmaid called Finn Cromwell. From this union sprang Ewen Cromwell. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Gammadion disappeared from his order well before the founding of Hallmark, some said to find a means to extend his already preternaturally long life. Some have whispered that Gammadion is willing the order to his heirs, for they believe Janos Disraeli is Gammadion's true son. It is unknown just when Janos Disraeli stepped in to lead the sect, though what is known is that Janos took the sect in a somewhat different direction. Gammadion's taste ran more towards Omegan alchemy; Disraeli preserved this, but injected some arcane rights from the Pisceans. Disraeli called his group at times the “true Exodesia”, and claimed to have a more balanced outlook than Exodesians, whom he saw as sycophants to Pisces and its dark Presences. Exodesia's obsession with infiltrating and eventually displacing humanity held no charm for Disraeli. The Obscuros and Biazel Karollus alike scoffed at Janos. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Disraeli's major accomplice in his occult activities was Griffin Van Juss (b. 1890), the son of Enoch Van Juss, one of the Dutch settlers who founded Hallmark. It is unknown if Enoch, like several of the settlers, carried Exodesian blood, though it seems likely. Griffin Van Juss had three children: twins Remuel and Katherine, b. 1923; and Rachael, b. 1927. The three siblings met Cary and Ashton Bradcroft in 1945, while in college at Oxford. The five of them formed a coven, along with Cary's lover, the half-Indian Jerusha Dharma, and, later, the duplicitous young Myrus T Fellbane. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Katherine and Ashton soon began an affair; unfortunately Rachael was also in love with Ashton. The coven studied through the late 1940s and into the 1950s. During their studies, Janos Disraeli himself taught them much, but they wrongly felt that the Order of Gammadion was an evil path. The Bradcrofts were good men, but filled, alas, with hubris. In 1954, Remuel and Katherine quit the coven to join their father in Disraeli's order, while Rachael remained with the Bradcrofts. Katherine discovered she was pregnant with Ashton's child. Disraeli knew the twin brothers were bound for Exodesia, and he did not wish to encroach on the hidden land. The Bradcroft twins did just that, but Rachael stayed behind. Jerusha and Fellbane both insisted on coming. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">The details of the Bradcroft expedition can be found in treatment #1: Backstory. Suffice to say, only Cary penetrated Exodesia and survived to tell of it. Ashton was destroyed but resurrected as an undead homonculous in the Obscuros' birthing chamber. Cary lived, and gained extraordinary mystical knowledge at a staggering rate inside the chamber. He felt his brain would explode. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">By 1955, Cary had regrouped in Europe, traveling and sorting through his newfoundc knowledge. In the meantime, Fellbane took Jerusha to London, where his cousin employed them. She had a son that year, a boy she named Vincent Cliven Dharma, or Clive. She gave Clive an amulet his father, Cary Bradcroft, had given her. Clive grew up hating his father and wondering why he abandoned Jerusha. Fellbane made sure this belief was fostered. Clive Dharma will be discussed extensively in future installments but for now we turn to his extended family. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">While Cary made his way across Europe, his brother had found Rachael Van Juss and told her the shocking truth of his new existence. After she digested the horrid news, she agreed, out of a love she still felt for Ashton, to take part in a magickal working with him. Now known only as Nocturno, the man who was Ashton Bradcroft used alchemy - ancient, complex, possibly deadly - alchemy to infuse his essence into Rachael van Juss, thus entering into an alchemical wedding with her, and, even more startling, an alchemical pregnancy resulted.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Nocturno learned that Katherine had given birth to his child. She named the boy Ashton van Juss and was not shy about his parentage. Nocturno refused to come for her or the child, though, and Rachael lied to her family about the source of her own pregnancy. When her odd-looking daughter was born in late 1955, she named her Silent Indigo (for she was dark of skin and mute) and agreed to raise her. She kept Nocturno's secrets, and Griffin van Juss was outraged, demanding to know what sort of inhuman being fathered Silent Indigo. The van Jusses were living in Holland when Rachael returned to them, so, in 1959 Griffin summoned Cary Bradcroft to his Dutch manor, and he confronted the Shadow Baron. Remuel demanded his father slay Cary Bradcroft. Katherine, however, yearned for Cary as she had his brother, and they consummated their desire for each other. Cary fought Griffin, slaying him in the process. Remuel and Katherine attacked Cary, but he escaped and returned to Hallmark. He was distressed that he had to kill Griffin; he was even more distressed when he learned the darkest family secret: that Remuel and Katherine were engaged in an incestuous affair. Unsure of her baby's father, Katherine nonetheless kept it and it was a daughter she named Sarah Janos van Juss, b. 1960.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">As for Janos Disraeli, he was attracted to a number of women in the 1960s, among them Katherine. The two wed in 1963, and he agreed to raise Justin and Sarah (he was already the girl's godfather). He put a permanent stop to Remuel's and Katherine's affair by basically frightening Remuel into leaving Holland. Remuel headed to America; his first stop was Hallmark, where he challenged Cary. Cary defeated him handily, and Remuel slunk away, ending up in New York City, where he opened a small occult bookshop. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">In 1965, Katherine gave birth to Janos' first known child: Griffin Disraeli (known years later as Rory Sabbath). But there was already a rift developing between Katherine and Janos. They divorced the following year. Janos sought out Remuel in New York and was amused by his bookshop. He was also a bit taken by a young woman who hung out at the shop: an aspiring poet/ chanteuse named Sophie Pavlinchak (b. 1947). Within a year Janos had charmed the young woman with promises to bankroll her creative endeavors. She impulsively wed the magician, and was soon expecting his child. In 1967, their daughter Tana Disraeli was born. Sophie began traveling with her band, and Janos allowed her this freedom and returned to Europe for a short time. In that time, Sophie lit on Hallmark for a show, and was immediately enamored of Flicker Street. She met a mysterious gentleman, an older man called Bram Vallard. As sharp readers might recall, Bram Vallard is the favored pseudonym of James Vallard Tressilian, the Apparition (also known as Lambert Christensen, Royal Hoxworth, and Saturnine). Vallard wooed the impetuous young musician, to no avail. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">IV. Sophie</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">In 1969, Vallard, who was still infatuated with Sophie, invited the Disraelis to his retreat in China. They were hosted by Vallard's young son Archimedes Ko. Disraeli was no stranger in China. He had visited Feng Qi on one previous occasion and met with its mistress, Shun Ti. Vallard had trained in the Orient all through the 1920s and periodically returned to his resort there. Unfortunately for all, Biazel had plans for Sophie Pavlinchak as well. He decreed that she would serve as fodder for one of the Presences, who would destroy Disraeli and Vallard, two of the many figures Biazel saw as potential threats to him. He and Janos had a centuries-long rivalry, and Biazel foretold that this was to be the perfect time to end it once and for all. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Biazel summoned the Presence known only as Thrall, who destroyed Janos Disraeli and ravished his wife after drugging Vallard, who dreamt he was making love with Sophie. She was in a delirious state the entire time. She dreamt she was with Bram and was unaware of Thrall's violation. Thrall disappeared into its own plane. Ko managed to get his father, Sophie, and little Tana to safety and to medical attention. Sophie went to Europe and attended Disraeli's funeral. Vallard invited her to convalesce at his chateau, to which she agreed. She soon found she was pregnant; she skaed Vallard to give the child his name as he likely the father. Vallard honestly did not recall his time in a drugged state, except that it was possible he and Sophie made love. So he agreed to wed her at the chateau. She did not wish to be married again so soon, but Vallard insisted; he was old-fashioned that way. But he soon had to return to Hallmark and help with the final confrontation with Kanabal. He was away for weeks, and later that year (1970), Sophie had a son she named Devon Vallard. Devon was the first child born of a human and one of the Presences since Biazel's birth, and he swore he would one day claim the child for the Order of the Thaumaturge.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">In 1973, Vallard went on what he deemed one last mission as the Apparition, with Shadow Baron and some of the Aggregate. Vallard's ultimate purpose was to assassinate Biazel. This mission will be detailed in future treatments; the word after the mission though was that the Apparition had not made it back alive. Archimedes Ko took over the Apparition's retreat, and was soon recruited to help train Ko's nephew, Liao Jun Kim (or June Kim Liao, b. 1967), who figures prominently in the future of Flicker Street. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Twice widowed, with two young children, Sophie Pavlinchak had returned to New York to advance her career. She suffered from deep depression and nightmares for years, and eventually slid into drug addiction. She had two notable affairs in the 1970s. In 1973, she slept with Remuel van Juss one night at his bookshop. She was soon pregnant again, though she wished no further contact with van Juss and regretted the entire sordid incident. She strongly considered an abortion, but ultimately decided to bear the child. She would raise it herself, she decided. The child was born in 1974. She named him Iain Pavlinchak; Iain after her own father, Ian Rhys McGregor. And thus we see another reason Biazel targeted Sophie; she was not merely a wayward and troubled young intellectual with dreams of fame as a rock star poet. She also had a genetic destiny, since her father was not only a great hero but also the bastard son of Exodesian Arch-Priest Urias. Her mother, Silvana Pavlinchak, had met McGregor during World War II and had a passionate affair, which resulted in Sophie. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Sophie had a mentor in New York, Matthias Creed, who was an underground filmmaker of some repute, having directed such provocative films as </span><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><i>Awakening in Hell </i></span><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">and was working throughout the 70s on his magnum opus </span><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><i>Abraxas Rising</i></span><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">. Matthias, though gay, had married a woman briefly in the 1940s and had a son, Emeril Creed. Emeril and his father had a strained relationship, but Emeril was essentially good-natured, not dark at all like Sophie's previous lovers. She had vowed never to be wed again, but relented to see if the “nice guy” was her cup of tea. She soon decided he was not, but by this time had given him a daughter, Kirillian Creed, born in November 1977. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Sophie did something bold and, some would say, cruel at this point. She sought out Bram Vallard with the help of her best friend from Flicker Street – Orphee de Lander, whom she also saw as a mentor of sorts. Orphee contacted Archimedes Ko, and soon realized Vallard was not truly dead. Ko contacted Sophie and agreed to take her to his father. Ko believed that Devon Vallard was not really his half-brother but declined to theorize exactly why he speculated this. Sophie flew to meet with Vallard. She took along her first three children but left Kirillian with Emeril. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Upon seeing Bram again and conferring with him, she agreed with him that there was much more to Devon's conception than they realized. Vallard, detective that he was, was convinced his own son Ko was in on Janos Disraeli's death and the drugging of Sophie and Vallard. Sophie implored Vallard to help her fake her own death; she was burnt out on her lifestyle, wished to get clean, and, rather callously, wished to detach herself from the Creed family for good. Vallard declined to help her, but Ko stepped in and acquiesced. It was only a matter of time before word reached Emeril Creed that his wife and mother of his infant daughter had died in a plane crash coming home to them. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Sophie's descent into darkness continued, and she eventually abandoned Devon, wishing no more reminders of the mysterious incident. As for Emeril Creed, he quickly remarried and Thelma Bruce, his new wife, adopted Kirillian Creed. The Creeds agreed to do what they could to expunge the child's memory of any trace of Sophie, though Matthias Creed, who loved his granddaughter dearly, was opposed to this. As fate would have it, Emeril took a job in Hallmark in 1980, and Thelma passed away of cancer in 1988. From then on, Kirillian took a liking to hiking to escape her blues, and told her father often that one day she'd scale Mt. Mosaic and learn its secrets. She had an instinctive intuition that Mt. Mosaic was of importance to all humanity. It would be some years, but she would come to learn how correct she was. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Welcome to Flicker Street!</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Henry Covert</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">September 20, 2015</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Copyright 2015 George Henry Smathers Jr.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Special thanx to Scott “Vesbius Flestrin” Moseley, a true brother and Flicker Street enthusiast.</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Extra special thanx to Win Scott Eckert, a mentor when I really needed one, for years of friendship, patience, and creative mythography. Win inspired me to write comix and stories in earnest again, and thanx is not enough for this gift.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">Flicker Street, all images, characters, and story elements are Copyright 2015 George Henry Smathers Jr.</span></span></span>Henry Coverthttps://plus.google.com/103990383640616339933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3852574899003991711.post-72793217454345006002015-09-16T17:33:00.004-07:002015-09-28T12:15:25.220-07:00FLICKER STREET - Treatment # 9 - Aggregate<br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This was a tough one to finish. So much information to impart... but it's done at last. Enjoy!&nbsp;</span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Vi_B3FTsCKE/VfoKNNQraVI/AAAAAAAADGc/ouIrytri474/s1600/Hieronymous.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Vi_B3FTsCKE/VfoKNNQraVI/AAAAAAAADGc/ouIrytri474/s320/Hieronymous.jpg" width="234" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">FLICKER STREET Treatment # 9 – Aggregate</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I. The Bradcroft Legacy</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Bear with us as we go back over facts presented in treatment # 1 – Backstory. In 1956 Cary Bradcroft arrived in Hallmark MA (apparently alone). His uncle Malcolm had lived in Hallmark for several years and owned and managed a curio shoppe there. Malcolm willed the shoppe to Cary, whose twin brother Ashton had reportedly been killed during an expedition to Africa. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When Cary took the title of baronet, his presumed dead brother dubbed him the Shadow Baron. As ever-fickle fate would have it, Ashton was indeed dead as we perceive the state. But he was in fact undead, and karmically attached to his brother. One could say he was now his brother's magickal familiar (that is, a mediator between the magician and the spirit world, and an aide in performing magickal workings) although Ashton, now calling himself simply Nocturno, was potentially more powerful than Cary. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The brothers decided to keep a low profile in Hallmark for several years, but the festering evil in the city and in the world around them spurred Cary to gather various extraordinary individuals who had been operating as vigilantes over the years, mainly the “pulp era” heroes loosely allied under the moniker The Silent Seven. With malefic forces such as Carnifex, Kanabal, and criminal organizations such as SkullCorp (ostensibly a reputable conglomerate but the Bradcrofts knew better) numbered among the threats to humanity's safety and freedom, the Shadow Baron resolved to organize a group, called simply the Aggregate, to deal with these menaces. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The final straw, as it were, was the murder of the heroic half-Exodesian polymath Vance Ewen “Doc Vance” Orlison at the hands of Carnifex and Kanabal, abetted by Kanabal's bloodthirsty offspring Solomon Vossius, soon to be known as the Tormenter. After Orlison's funeral, during which Cary was accosted by REACT agent Thomas Ledge, he began formulating a solid plan to put the Aggregate into play and encompass an even broader range of talent as the Silent Seven. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">By March 1964, the proverbial die was cast. Under the sign of Pisces, as unveiled to Cary during a vision, or premonition, he received as he was dangling tortured in the inner chamber of the Obscuros sect in Exodesia a decade before, the Shadow Baron made his move. Cary had spent several years befriending the Omegan Ursulin, and Dr. E was born Evan Eloy Queeq and was at one time a lover of the Bradcrofts' beloved cousin Paige. Dr. E wanted Paige to go on thinking him dead from the TSD-related accident that changed him into E. Her torment was doubled by the fact that her son, Kyle Fabricand, was really Evan's. Shadow Baron and Nocturno agreed to keep each party's secret, though they felt it foolish.</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Aggregate was funded by Bradcroft Ltd, in association with the Vossius company now run by Sidonie and Andreas. Later, Renova, Inc. became a partner and the entity became known as The Zed Foundation. The bulk of the Aggregate consisted of members imported from the Silent Seven. Saturnine, Richter, Sword, Kraken, Anton Gamble, and Gadgeteer V were all co-founders of the Aggregate. The final co-founder was 26-year old Brandon ver Dorn, who lived a double life as the Snow Archer; some might say he lived a triple life in actuality, an observation to be clarified shortly. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">II. The White Archer?</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Brandon was the great-grandson of Ambrosius ver Dorn (b. 1837), who largely bankrolled the Cromwell Party that led to Hallmark's founding. Ambrosius was the bastard son of a Dutch miner, Cesar ver Dorn, who hit it rich, and of the woman known only as Seripha, an Exodesian refugee. More than one of the descendants of the Dutch founders of Hallmark were named for Seripha. Ambrosius benefited from his mother's genes and he lived 105 years (and even then he was killed in a car accident).</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Brandon ver Dorn was Dr. E's closest friend, and worked for the brilliant Emerson Trent and his polymath half-brother Euphrates Aquinas Straw. Ver Dorn was always cryptic about his early life back then, and sowed some distrust among the team at times but eventually revealed his story. We will digress for a time to discuss the secrets of the Snow Archer. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Ambrosius ver Dorns' son Christian fell in love with Seripha de Ruyter (named for Ambrosius' mother, as alluded to above), stunning daughter of the great adventurer Ananias de Ruyter and Inocencia Renova. They had a son with copper skin and grey eyes, who was given the appellation Hendrik van Hoke II. This was due to the fact that Seripha de Ruyter was wed to Christian's best friend, Jost van Hoke, who claimed the child as his own. But Hendrik was truly a ver Dorn. Seripha and Jost had a daughter of their own, Matilda van Hoke, whose son, Dugas van Hoke, aka Locke, was a musician (he played bass in the band the Sacred Mirrors for a time) and a SkullCorp operative in the 1960s (he reported directly to Phileas Caleb). Hendrik van Hoke II changed his surname to ver Dorn as an adult married into the heretofore undiscussed Palmer clan. His wife, Esther Palmer (daughter of first cousins Randolph and Ruth Palmer, whose sale of their grocery store chain in 1947 to the Harness family assured the Palmer's place in Hallmark society), bore him Brandon Palmer ver Dorn. The entire family were scandalized by Hendrik and found his son an impetuous (if goodhearted) youth and were not terribly dismayed when they embarked in 1947 on what appeared to be a fatal flight to the arctic. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Hendrik ver Dorn's renowned flight skills, honed in World War II, did not save him, and he was killed when his plane hit an icecap in the midst of a “freak storm”. Young Brandon was believed killed as well. Amazingly, so the story goes, he was found by a tribe of Inuits and raised by them as their own. Exactly what transpired in the life of Brandon ver Dorn from his 10<sup>th</sup> to his 17<sup>th</sup> year is largely unknown, but by his own account, he became the greatest hunter, archer, and scout in the tribe – save for one man that ver Dorn referred to simply as “Aguila”. Aguila called Brandon “The White Archer” and despised him as a blood rival. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The account is a familiar one, one possibly embroidered by Brandon over the years. Simply, the chief of the tribe, Silver Eyes, adopted the ten-year old ver Dorn and the chief's natural son, Aguila, was bitter and resentful. In this archetypal situation, the two “brothers” finally duelled, and, as to be expected, when the time came for Brandon to settle the matter with Aguila's life, he spared Aguila and merely humbled him. It is known with some certainty that in 1955, Ursulin, in his travels about the world he was born, but not raised, on, found Brandon and ver Dorn was spirited back to SkullCorp HQ. This was when Ursulin was still cooperating with Skull's scientists, before he decamped and became a free agent, albeit one hotly sought out by REACT. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Ver Dorn suffered a massive culture shock, having been partially raised by what some saw as a “primitive” culture and then rescued by an alien benefactor and exposed to technology far ahead of the society he left behind. In 1957, Esther Palmer ver Dorn passed away, leaving her only child her portion of the ver Dorn and Palmer fortunes. Ver Dorn was now free to travel and decide his fate. In 1959, ver Dorn was approached by REACT and recruited by them, though he questioned their motives. However, he decided that Skull's path was the wrong one for him, and for humanity, and so went to work for the ostensible “good guys”, who already had accrued quite a file on ver Dorn. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The file was labeled “Snow Archer” as REACT, frankly, even in those days before political correctness was codified, felt “White Archer” was patronizing to the tribe Brandon joined, and the group didn't want a stigma of white supremacy attached to the son of a man who fought the Nazis. They also didn't feel like competing with Skull's progressive ethnic hiring policies. Ver Dorn decided to become a double agent, ostensibly working for REACT but reporting his information to Cary Bradcroft, who Ursulin introduced him to. On top of all this, the perpetually busy, seemingly sleepless Snow Archer operated as a part-time vigilante on the streets of Hallmark inspired by the Silent Seven, though it wasn't long before he was outed as Brandon ver Dorn, wealthy but definitely not a stereotypical playboy. His years as the son of Silver Eyes gave him a rather zen and good-natured outlook, despite the darkness in his life.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Archer's first mission for REACT involved going undercover in the lower echelons of SkullCorp under the name Sigmund Bartholemew. Ver Dorn saw this as a way out of his brushes with the law as a vigilante and so he faked his own death and sunk himself into becoming Bartholemew. Brandon ver Dorn had been too long without any meaningful female companionship, and embarked on a passionate affair with co-worker Medea Strasser. To foster his disguise, “Sigmund” married the young German girl, and she was soon pregnant. The catch to all this was that Skull didn't want Bartholemew working as a mere office flunkie but as a soldier attached to FOPA in Libania. This was because they had researched Bartholemew and learned his true ID and that he was a REACT agent. Their test for him was a mission in Libania. They threatened to murder Medea and their infant Stephen if he refused to comply.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The spy called Sigmund Bartholemew was put in charge of a FOPA unit in Libania. They were raiding their long-time enemies the Serafinians. “Bartholemew” was told if the mission went well he could be promoted to the rank of a top political assassin and eventually reach the inner circle of Skull. He was warned that at this point there was no turning back. But he was in contact with Ursulin, who, with Dr E and the Shadow Baron, rescued the Archer and defeated the Libanian raid on Serafinia. This mission could be said to be the seed from which the Aggregate grew. No longer just a concept in Cary Bradcroft's mystical visions, but a core group of four men who had no legal identities in society – Nocturno; the believed dead ver Dorn and Queeq; and Ursulin (or “Captain Omega”). </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It should be noted before returning to the genesis of the Aggregate in 1964 that in 1961, when the Libanian raid was foiled, Sigmund Bartholemew was declared deceased, and SkullCorp cut loose Medea Strasser Bartholemew with a modest severance package, and she and her son had to go on welfare until they met Angelo Blatanski, a man of questionable integrity who married Medea and raised young Stephen Bartholemew, about whom much more will be related in future accounts.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">III. The Sixties</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As noted elsewhere, in 1964, the mystery men called Sword and the Kraken were slain by the barbarous Carnifex. Existentialist crusader Anton Gamble retired and pursued his passion for Dawn Cheshire Vossius Clancey. Lined up to fill the void were Trent and Straw, both welcomed into the group. Two black men in such a position in 1965 was seemingly unthinkable, but the Bradcrofts could care less. The entire enterprise was like a secret society anyway, with the public not privy to its workings. Though African-Americans (really Jamaican-Americans) were entrenched in the group, the Aggregate was void of distaff membership for a time, and was roundly criticized within the group itself for it. This would change dramatically by the end of the decade. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In 1966, The Absurd Tentacle was invited but declined. He scoffed at the operation for his own abstruse reasons. Thomas Ledge, however, joined up that year, as a liaison to REACT. The Shadow Baron felt it better to follow the maxim of keeping one's enemies closer. Ledge caused no end of controversy in the group. In combat with the team's foes, Ledge lent a great deal to the proceedings. He was well-trained, fearless, agile, superhumanly strong, and healed very quickly. He aged slowly and was rarely ill. Kong's genes were strong in him.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In 1968, the problem of no women in the group was resolved with a vengeance, as the group drafted in three female members (or was it four? More on that shortly). Hyacinthe and Fiora Charme were hippie hangers-on to Orphee de Lander, and both had been administered doses of TSD. Hyacinthe believed her powers lie in her ability to affect others' mood for the better. Her best friend Emily Duncan claimed to ply the same talents under the name Fiora Charme. Marcella Motto was a young Libanian drfated into illicit TSD trials who emerged as Princesa Verde (“The Emerald Princess”), who boasted green skin, gossamer jade wings, and the ability to control vegetation. Orphee de Lander took immediate interest in recruiting her, but Shadow Baron beat him to it.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Soon after this femme contingent signed up, a man called Hieronymous followed suit. Hieronymous though unknown to many at first was also a woman – Dahlia Mueller, who disguised as a man, with a costume festooned with mystic symbols and topped by assymetrical goggles and a cowl covering her entire face. Hieronymous was a mystical artist, able to transcribe mystic symbols with ease and vivify them.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In 1969, Richter and Saturnine were on the cusp of retirement, and missed many meetings. Thus Shadow Baron and Nocturno sought out two new members to replace the literally irreplaceable. The superhumanly strong and tough Wurm, adorned with Spanish conquistador and dragon imagery, became the next official recruit. He was really Benjamin “Ben” Renova, heir to the vast Renova fortune first struck when his great-grandfather Guillermo Renova staked his claim with the Cromwell Party at Mt Mosaic in 1887. Ben was also descended from the Van Hokes and the Exodesian Elodie. He owned Van Hoke General Hospital, Renova Bank &amp; Loan, and Renova Plaza. He was a major benefactor to the fledgling Zed Foundation (built on the original Bradcroft Foundation). Renova was nearly as much a right wing idealogue as Thomas Ledge (they became lifelong best friends) though Ben was by far the easier to take. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Gulliver joined in late 1969, and was still in training when the group went up against Kanabal for the final round. Gulliver was Enos McClegg, a Scottish alcoholic who stood a menacing 10 feet tall – another TSD experiment. From 1967-1969, the ever-changing team found themselves battling the likes of Exodesian Xeronixia; gangsters Tony Duarte, Marco Allegretti, and Milo Majestyk; the deadly Kith M'Nali, or the 'Black Tamerlane' (discussed at length previously); the Exodesian Arch-Priest Urias; and, at long last, Kong the Claimer in person (or so they believed). Fiora Charme left the team in 1970 to marry and tour with Sacred Mirrors keyboardist (and brother of the Absurd Tentacle) Bertrand Rojiczek. Over the next few years they had two children: Collette and RD.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In May 1970 the final battle with longtime foe Kanabal was joined. Gadgeteer V was killed, and Anton Gamble presumed dead. Hieronymous was on leave during this battle (She was giving birth to her daughter by the Absurd Tentacle and put the child up for adoption. It was adopted, and christened Espasia Felts). Saturnine and Richter went into retirement. An era had ended. The gauntlet had truly passed forevermore from Vance Orlison's Silent Seven to Cary Bradcroft's Aggregate.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">IV. The Dawning of the Age of Aquarius/ Horus?</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1971 was an eventful time for the world's only full-fledged “superhero” team, albeit one still operating beneath the public's radar. Comings and goings were hard to track; there were odd visitations; and the threats investigated became more varied – and deadly. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Hieronymous returned, after her time away struggling with the decision to give up her daughter. She dropped the he-drag and became known as the Blue Dahlia, with the same esoteric abilities as Hieronymous. Hyacinthe followed her best friend's lead and departed the team to spend her time as part of Orphee de Lander's emergent “Terminal Culture” movement. He was invited once more to join the group, by emissaries Dr E and Snow Archer, and was so enraged that he attacked them and seriously injured the Archer, thus sidelining him from battle for weeks. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Shortly thereafter, Princesa Verde became involved with a dusky-skinned, green-eyed man called Cedric Lykos, and Cary Bradcroft harbored his suspicions about this stranger to Hallmark. Another man to provoke the interest of the Aggregate was the bohemian who called himself only Brother Zodiac. He was grey-brown of skin, had grey eyes with incandescent swirls like pools of gold which he perpetually hid behind round purple shades. His long thick cascading hair was usually tied back and he was ever barechested save for an open vest adorned with scales, sequins, and locks of hair. He wore a round medallion emblazoned with the zodiac wheel. Brother Zodiac was truly inscrutable; he befriended both Cary Bradcroft and Orphee de Lander but neither seemed able to pierce his veil of mystery. One thing was sure; he exuded power; yet he declined a commitment to either Cary or Orphee to lend them that power. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Meanwhile, Dannish Bacon, lead singer for the Sacred Mirrors, died in France of a drug overdose. Fiora Charm reluctantly took the slot as their lead vocalist. She had her hands full with RD, her son by Mirrors keyboardist Bertrand Rojiczek, who she recently wed. Bertrand was intrigued by Brother Zodiac's charisma and high standing in the Flicker Street scene with his aura of hallucinogenic mystery and dimestore Zen homilies. The Brother anticipated this and turned down Bertrand's off to “jam”, claiming he (Zodiac) was no musician; he merely “dug” Flicker Street and all it symbolized. By mid 1972 much of the Sacred Mirrors crisis was a mute point (about which more further along); Fiora became pregnant again and in early 1973 had a daughter Collette Rojiczek. She retired from music and from the Aggregate permanently. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As for Cedric Lykos, his secrets came to the fore when he and Princesa were visiting Cary at the Bradcroft Ltd curio shoppe in late 1971. Cary was training a new clerk at the shoppe, an American Indian named Hiawatha Hand who had petitioned Bradcroft for membership in the Aggregate and only recently been accepted. Hand had been in prison when he was forced to be subjected to the TSD trials. They left him with tremendous strength and endurance and a “second sight” of sorts – a form of clairvoyance and danger signal, a feel for the “vibes” of those around him. And those vibes were running rampant the first day Hiawatha Hand met Cedric Lykos in the curio shoppe.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">No sooner had the small group had a chance for introductions than a mystic portal opened, spilling out a many-eyed, mutlt-tentacled eldritch monstrosity which bound Cary's face and hands left he perform any magick. One mighty tentacle swatted Princesa Verde away; another Hiawatha Hand. But Cedric Lykos had lept on the creature almost immediately. Cedric began savagely biting and clawing at the creature until Lykos' own flesh began to fall way, revealing a bipedal wolfen creature. The tenacious man-wolf used all his strength to roll over the undulating thing – just enough for Cary to free a hand and murmur a spell. With that the mass of eyes and lampreys was sucked into the air itself, like a film played backwards. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Cary quickly explained what he'd done, but more urgently, he questioned Cedric Lykos, whose surname had been a clue to Cary when they met that Cedric was other than he appeared. Cedric Lykos was a true lycanthrope. Cary said that he had heard rumors of Cedric's race, the umbra lupa (“shadow wolves”) when he was in Exodesia in 1954, but never saw a real werewolf. Cedric explained, “My people were once humans in Egypt – kidnapped, enslaved, raped, and experimented on magically... merged with wolves and interbred with Exodesians. Word of our our lives spread in whispers through the world over centuries – til we were legend.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Some of escaped and roamed Earth through the millenia, but not my family. The house of Lykos were the chosen dogs of the sect ruled by the vile High Priest Praven the First. His contemporary namesake ruled my immediate family. My brother, Vulpis, became a hunter for ancient Praven; I was sent by Priest Urias for his own purposes to infiltrate the Zed Foundation. I am sorry, Baron Bradcroft.”</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I am not a full baron, Cedric. Your people were not just slaves per se, if I am correct but...”</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Hand finished, “Familiars to the sorcerous clergy of Exodesia, correct?”</span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Yes”, said Lykos. “But I wish to be your familiar, O Shadow Baron. I oppose the Exodesians and loathe the place of my birth. Make me one of you.”</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Cary agreed, as Lykos had saved his life from the Thzhugua beast. He prepared a spell with Nocturno to crack the spell placed over Cedric and shield him from detection by the Exodesians. After the spell was successfully cast, Cedric found Princesa Verde had left the mansion, but did leave a note for him. She claimed the deception Cedric perpetrated was too much; that he had simply used her; and other harsh accusations. For Cedric's part, he was deeply in love with her, and he was crestfallen to say the least. But the Aggregate did accept him. He and Hand became fast friends, and he was the perfect familiar for Cary, who did not want Cedric to feel enslaved in his new station as in his old.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As noted earlier, Flicker Street's premiere psychedelic band, the Sacred Mirrors, was falling apart by mid 1972. It was in that year that not only did Fiora Charme abdicate her spot as the Mirrors' chanteuse, but also crimefighting P.I. The Wrath, a new and unknown quantity on the Hallmark scene, came into play. The Wrath soon discovered that the Mirrors' guitarist Zane Whiteside D'Azai and bassist Locke were actually SkullCorp spies attempting to subvert Orphee deLander's Flicker Street scene. Zane and Locke were spies for Phileas Caleb and Donal Rykard and had been for some time. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It's worth noting that Locke was born Dugas van Hoke, half-1<sup>st</sup> cousin of the Snow Archer. They shared a grandmother, Seripha de Ruyter, named for the Exodesian Seripha (b. 1700; the mother of Ambrosius ver Dorn and ancestor of Locke and the Archer), whose ancestor Arch-Priestess Serafinia the First the country of Serafinia was named for. The Serafinians were originally pagans who worshiped the Exodesians.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Neither Zane nor Locke were heard from again. Zane, repentant, was given a new ID: Daniel “DJ Dan” Carson by the Wrath and moved to a trailer park in nearby Gossingham. He continued to see his on and off married girlfriend Chloris Pendred (Kong's granddaughter, about which more in future installments). Locke was slain in a gunfight by Wrath. Wrath's heroism inspired Cary to dispatch the unlikely duo of Thomas Ledge and Euphrates Straw to seek his services in the Aggregate. The Wrath agreed, as long as he could keep his PI office. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Wrath's roots in the fabric of our larger tale run deep. He was really John Gauvin (b. 1943), and had been a P.I. Since 1967. He took the costumed identity of The Wrath in 1970. He was a master of weaponry and collected it avidly. He was a fierce fighter and first rate detective. He had exceptional genes that nurtured these talents. His father Danel Gauvin, an insurance salesman with a fiery temper was the son of one Peter Gauvin and Rachel ver Dorn, the great-granddaughter of Ambrosius ver Dorn, making John a cousin of Locke and the Snow Archer. Ambrosius, of course, daughter of the Exodesian Seripha, was descended maternally through the line of the notorious priestess Phallasma and, ultimately, the Arch-Priestess Serafinia (all of which has been covered at some length). </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The black-haired John Gauvin has much Hispanic blood. His mother was Pilar Llosa, making him the nephew of Emilio Florenza (born Vargas Llosa, 1930), one of the 'Four Outsiders' who pilfered SkullCorp cash, tech, and documents and fled from Skull in the 1950s. Thus John is first cousin of Florenza's children, one of whom, Juliana Florenza (b. 1967), will be discussed at much length in the modern portion of our account. Pilar Llosa was the daughter of Carolina Fuentes (granddaughter of the ill-fated Libanian guide Jacinto Fuentes) and Tomas Llosa, who boasts quite a pedigree. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Through Tomas Llosa, John Gauvin is the great-great-grandson of the long-lived gunfighter Sorrow; the fourth great-grandson of Urias (not to mention Urias' long-lived ancestors); and the fifth great-grandchild of Ewen Cromwell the Carnifex. Much proud heroic and villainous blood alike coursed through the veins of the man called Wrath, and the Shadow Baron saw grand potential for good in John Gauvin. When next we convene, we'll examine in depth the radical changes ahead for the Aggregate as the 1970s wane.</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Welcome to Flicker Street!</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Henry Covert</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">September 16, 2015</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Copyright 2015 George Henry Smathers Jr.</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In Memory of Thomas Shackleford Davis, 1966-2004. RIP. You taught me how to build a world.</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Special thanx to my blood brother Sean Lee Levin, for belief, cameraderie, and collaboration.&nbsp;</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: #f7f0e9; color: blue; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Flicker Street, all images, characters, and story elements are Copyright 2015 George Henry Smathers Jr.</span><br /><br /><br />Henry Coverthttps://plus.google.com/103990383640616339933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3852574899003991711.post-16184034389114668322015-08-27T16:47:00.001-07:002015-09-22T19:04:02.365-07:00FLICKER STREET - Treatment # 8 - Entangled<span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So I have returned with more hopelessly convoluted synopses of my Flicker Street Saga. I'm inching towards the main story after these backstories. Prepare for something deeply personal beneath the fantastique....</span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bFlqRjxBhTk/SvMhYNM0CxI/AAAAAAAAAmk/lsbjD278nBk/s1600/epiphany%2B001%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bFlqRjxBhTk/SvMhYNM0CxI/AAAAAAAAAmk/lsbjD278nBk/s320/epiphany%2B001%2B-%2BCopy.jpg" width="120" /></a></div><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">FLICKER STREET Treatment # 8 – Entangled</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This Tangle of Thornes...</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As recounted in Treatment # 1: Backstory, three Irish-born siblings were the linchpin of an organized crime unit in the late 1940s and early 1950s called Brothers-in-Arms, later known as the Machine. Their enormously successful organization became the spine of the fledgling Skull Corporation, when paired with Kong's Black Skull Society.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">How three immigrant petty thieves became the prime movers of arms deals with a postwar communist country known as Libania boggles the mind. But Kong, as Bromley Chamberlain, CEO of SkullCorp and also known as Mr. Drang, VP of 'Special Projects' manipulated them to greatness as it were. He inspired the Burden ne Brighton brothers to embrace their new identities as Artemus Calvino, Augustus Breton, and Geoffrey Barton Thorne. Artemus excelled as a ruthless businessman as well as a top-notch mercenary. Augustus kept the books and was in charge of paying the law to look the other way. Geoffrey, fluent in Spanish, was the go-between to Libania. His heart was never really in it, and he lost himself in drink and “loose women”. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">One thing about the hardscrabble background of the Thornes was that they were, indeed, survivors. But the eldest Thorne was even more determined, more ruthless, in his quest for power. For all it got him, his brethren ultimately outlived him, though their quality of life was rock bottom by this time. For some time, the younger siblings felt bullied and envious of the overbearing and dictatorial Artemus Thorne. Captain Vargas Llosa was also disgusted with Artemus' never-ending greed, and his leering after Llosa's wife Carmen. Artemus also fancied the Llosa's precocious young daughter Marilia. Artemus had his eye fixed firmly on the barely pubescent girl.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The three disgruntled men wanted a way out – out of the Machine, Skull, and FOPA forever. They found an invaluable ally in Dr. Turner Lawton, a somewhat manic and unstable TSD specialist who had experimented on himself before his son was born. For all his dangerous traits, Lawton was a true friend to the three gentlemen, and vowed SkullCorp would fall one day. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Augustus implored Lawton to experiment on him with TSD; at first Turner refused, But felt that maybe with the two of them enhanced they might have a better chance against SkullCorp. Augustus was injected with TSD in 1956. He felt no untoward side effects – but when his daughter first opened her eyes, they briefly flared a deep flaming red. It would be many years until her eyes burnt so brightly again, but the memory literally emblazoned on his brain caused him to name her Kendall (i.e. 'kindle'). </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Augustus and Vargas concocted a scheme to rob SkullCorp of $4 million and irreplaceable paperwork, plus, Lawton insisted, a variety of high-tech gadgets. They would scatter to the four winds, so to speak, change their names, and live off of their shares of the pilfered Skull loot. With the papers, they had much dirt on Skull and could resort to blackmail were they ever found out.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This was not the devastating blow the mutinous quartet imagined; it was a mere inconvenience to Kong. However, the man born Kaosong Qua had photographic memory, and he let events play out over the years to avenge his, and SkullCorp's honor, and to eliminate the quartet of traitors.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">II. The Grand Plan</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It was in late 1947 that the “grand plan” went forward. Libania was in an upheaval after WWII, and stocks were down at SkullCorp. This was to last only a short time however. But the “Four Outsiders” (as they called themselves) struck while the proverbial iron was scorching, and Kong suffered his first defeat. This is probably what fueled 40 years of hate that resulted from the Outsiders' actions.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Artemus Thorne suspected Vargas Llosa right away, but he had no proof. Artemus sought out Llosa's wife Carmen Francisco, and murdered her. It is worth reiterating here that Vargas Llosa boasted quite the pedigree: his grandparents were Alonzo Llosa and Luna Corvo, the latter the daughter of the legendary gunfighter Sorrow and his wife Carmelita Rodriquez. Luna's sister Solita was the mother of the colorful bandit/ guide Felix Tequila, described further in past chapters. Felix's daughter Esperance had a son, Diaz Montaldo, b. 1956, who we shall explore in the some depth in the modern portion of our account.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After Artemus' slaying of Carmen, he lived out a long-brewing fantasy: Thorne wed the 15 year-old Marillia Llosa, daughter of Carmen and Vargas. Thorne lorded it over the arms deals and drug smuggling based in Libania, to the pleasure of Kong and Skull's inner circle.</span>&nbsp;</span><span style="color: blue; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The 1950s were increasingly frenzied for the man calling himself Artemus Calvino Thorne. He had a suspicion that the traitor Vargas Llosa was “hiding in plain sight” in Hallmark, MA. He confided this to no one. While on his quest to find Llosa, now going under the guise of a Cuban Catholic professor named Emilio Florenza, working at Cullen Darby Communal College (CDCC), Thorne met the stunning and eccentric Paige Bradcroft. He immediately used his wealth and power to home in on her. She'd recently had a brief affair with Evan Eloy Queeq “the first American Indian physicist” they called him (take from that what you will). But Artemus' vast charisma won her over. Theirs was a whirlwind wedding, and soon after, in 1956, their son, Calvin Artemus Thorne, was born.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But Paige soon “relapsed”, and Queeq impregnated her. Sensing this and furious, Artemus filed for a quick divorce, and “gave” Paige to his best friend John Paul Fabricand. Artemus had no real ground to stand on, as he was a bigamist, being married to young Marillia in Libania. John Paul claimed the son, Kyle, as his own, a Fabricand, but his deeply Native-American features belied that. Kyle learned of the mystic arts from his legal father, though he really detested him. In 1962. Marillia bore Artemus a daughter, Nanda Marillia Thorne, nicknamed “Nan”. In his travels, Thorne kept his lives in Libania and Hallmark eons apart.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">III. Quatros Rebeldes</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And so what of the other 'Four Outsiders'? With Queeq's help, the man now known as Emilio Florenza kept his cover, teaching at CDCC and raising a good-sized family. He had married Consuela Diamante, and had four daughters: Carmen, twins Carillia and Carmilla, and the youngest Juliana (born 1968), as well as a son Ricardo, or Ricky, born 1977. Before his death, Artemus Thorne held one last investigation in Hallmark and concluded Florenza was indeed Llosa. He mailed his mysterious findings to a then-unknown party. His foolish return to Hallmark led to his ultimate (and, many would say, well-deserved) demise, though.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Dr. Turner Lawton fled to France with his newly-acquired tech, and soon wed the bohemian Jaresse de Funes. He changed his name to Danton Lloyd-Langton (after “Llosa-Lawton) and they had a son Jareth Llloyd-Langton born 1966. Danton became a high school science teacher, and in 1970 went to Hallmark to help out Emilio. While there he had an affair with the militant Maya Clancey, a student of Emilio's (and daughter of Dawn Cheshire and Zachariah Clancey). He returned to France and Trent Clancy their child was born . Later, Trent went by the name Flint Water. Flint's brother Jareth was the victim of a nasty divorce in 1982. Lawton took Jareth to Hallmark and tried to rekindle his romance with Maya. This rather quickly went south, and Maya did not reveal then that Flint was Jareth's brother. Despite the risk, Lawton decided to stay in Hallmark and teach, keeping a low-profile and home schooling his son for the most part. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Augustus Breton Thorne retired with his proverbial ill-gotten gains and settled in Arizona. He took the name David August. He led a simple, quiet life on a farm with his wife Kim Batten. The two of them did the whole nature thing – camping, hiking, hydroponics – until their daughter's eyes flared once then returned to normal. Naming their daughter Kendall August, the two were happy throughout the 1960s – until Kim died of cancer in 1973. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The youngest Thorne brother became Greg Burden once more. He moved to England and wed a Welsh woman, Ellspeth Gough, in Manchester in 1961. Their daughter Gloria Erin Burden was born in 1962 in London. When Ellspeth died in 1965, Greg moved to Montrose IL and wed Miranda Guidrey a biker chick. Their son Jeremiah Guidrey (name on birth certificate) was born in 1968. The impetuous Miranda was abusive to Greg and abandoned him. She learned his true name and blackmailed him into letting her split with Jeremiah while he became a desolate alcoholic and raised Gloria alone in IL. She renamed her son Jeremiah Thorne and hoped to one day find Greg's money and secrets. She moved to Hallmark where Skull was and bided her time. Alas, drugs and prostitution deterred her from getting far. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Paige Bradcroft Thorne Fabricand finally took her own life in 1974, after learning E was alive and that she couldn't be with him. Paige and Kyle were living in NZ at the time. By 1975, Nocturno had had enough after Paige's fate. Nocturno (Paige's cousin) destroyed Artemus Thorne. Kyle barely escaped his wrath. Calvin, on the move, took odd jobs and occasionally saw his half-sister Nan, who he dearly loved. He was approached in 1975 by Ewen Cromwell, who offered to train him.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">That same year, in his travels, Cal had assumed the name Brett Thawne and wed a bi-polar junkie called Iris Knarpp (natal name unknown). This disastrous union came to a halt when Cal took up Cromwell's offer. Abandoning his wife and their marriage (which Iris had annulled when she learned "Brett Thawne" never really existed), Cal swore never again to grow intimate with a woman, a vow he upheld for many years. As for Iris Knarpp, she gave birth to Cal's daughter, christened Arletty Thawn, in December of 1975. While his half-brother </span><span style="color: blue; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Kyle became a Skull inner circle member under the tutelage of Donal Rykards, Calvin Thorne made his debut as the deadliest mercenary this side of his mentor the Carnifex, and became known as Exterminans, or the Death Walker. His nom de guerre was derived, oddly enough, from an essay he'd read penned by none other than Anton Gamble, whose work, though a bit left-leaning for Cal, had always fascinated him.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In concluding this installment, we must flash forward and alight once more on the year 1987. 40 years after Quatros Rebeldos, the four men who betrayed Skull, had scattered, they were at last accounted for. And an inferno was on the horizon....</span><br /><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Welcome to Flicker Street!</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Henry Covert</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">August 27, 2015</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Copyright 2015 George Henry Smathers Jr.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="background-color: #f7f0e9; color: blue; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Special thanx to</span><span style="background-color: #f7f0e9; color: blue; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">&nbsp;Thomas S. Davis, whose childhood imagination inspired me to attempt my own original comix stories.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="background-color: #f7f0e9; color: blue; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Extra special thanx to Bill White, for giving me the key to return to and inhabit Flicker Street.</span><br /><br style="background-color: #f7f0e9; color: #632035; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: #f7f0e9; color: #632035; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: blue;">Flicker Street, all images, characters, and story elements are Copyright 2015 George Henry Smathers Jr.</span></span><br /><br />Henry Coverthttps://plus.google.com/103990383640616339933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3852574899003991711.post-27594356052381733782015-06-30T02:09:00.000-07:002015-09-01T14:08:28.457-07:00FLICKER STREET Treatment # 7 - Interstice<span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This treatment was quite an undertaking. Juggling dozens of characters and plot threads from prior installments led to a rather larger than intended interstice. Still, I think it's successfully wrapped up a first phase, if you will, and subsequent installments should find the world of Flicker Street much easier to digest after these seven initial segments. At least, that's my intention. Enjoy! &nbsp;&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">FLICKER STREET Treatment # 7 – Interstice</span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-A9KEuLBItKQ/VZJbrACITHI/AAAAAAAADE8/__jlub8HY6Q/s1600/Kyle%2BEvan%2BFabricand.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-A9KEuLBItKQ/VZJbrACITHI/AAAAAAAADE8/__jlub8HY6Q/s200/Kyle%2BEvan%2BFabricand.jpg" width="130" /></a><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-S1rzWak2Bmg/VZJbyNQ-LxI/AAAAAAAADFE/F8fefu4bZCI/s1600/Cal%2BThorne%2B-%2BDeath%2BWalker.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-S1rzWak2Bmg/VZJbyNQ-LxI/AAAAAAAADFE/F8fefu4bZCI/s200/Cal%2BThorne%2B-%2BDeath%2BWalker.jpg" width="120" /></a></div><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I. Kanabal Reborn</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Gerhardt Vossius had used Kirsten Roeg in 1949 to attempt freedom and for his own amorous needs. He soon rejected her and their daughter Jennifer however. In 1959 the one-legged unrepentant cannibal killer began corresponding with a former teammate from the Silent Seven who'd also fallen far down on her luck – Felicia McGee. The once stunning, kick ass crimefighter Crimson Velvet had become a stripper, then a prostitute, and, at the age of 40, a stag film actress. She formed a sick attachment to the erstwhile Captain Caliban. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">At this point, Gerhardt had had years to formulate a plan to gain revenge on his many enemies. Gerhardt once again took advantage of his extremely liberal warden, Mallard, as he had when he engaged in conjugal visits with Kirsten. He and Felicia conjugated several times while Vossius was incarcerated. This led to the 1961 birth of twins Gareb and Luana Vossius. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The final straw was when Kanabal escaped from prison in 1962. This was engineered by Kong, who wished to play Vossius and Ewen Cromwell against each other and eliminate several of their common enemies at once. Kong put up Vossius in a filthy hotel, where he began murdering whores and vagrants and consuming their flesh. His leg grew back, and he grew incredibly strong and youthful looking for his age (then 58).</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Kanabal and Carnifex, under Kong's direction, put together a plan to wipe out the Silent Seven (all still alive, save honorary member Sorrow), as well as Dawn, Zachariah, and all of her Clancy children (Gerhardt insisted he get to know his son Solomon). Felicia feared for her life, and that of her babies. She resolved to go to Vance Orlison and Gadgeteer V for help. Before she could act, Carnifex broke into the Clancys' home at night and butchered Zachariah in front of Dawn and their five children – though he flashed a large smile at 15 year old Solomon Vossius. Solomon smiled back shockingly by all accounts. And then Cromwell took the eldest boy with him. “Your hate can take a most wondrous shape, tainted blood of my blood”. As per Kong's orders, Solomon was reunited with his father. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After Felicia's justifiably hysterical warning, Vance conferred with Cary Bradcroft AKA The Shadow Baron, while Richter, Sword, and Bradcroft's young charge Brandon ver Dorn (b, 1937), also known as the Snow Archer (for reasons that will be made clear in a future treatment), teamed to rescue Solomon. Months went by, and in 1963, the reluctant allies Carnifex and Kanabal drew further blood. Vance had been on their trail for some time and one night the two rogues smashed into his stately manor. Before Vance could react, Carnifex had dug his blade deeply into Doc's heart and out the other side. Solomon was again an accomplice; the sanguinary partners were encouraging the younger Vossius to follow in their blood-caked footsteps. By this point, Solomon was already imploring Ewen to train him in all his fighting skills.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">II. The Gauntlet Passed</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Dr. Vance Ewen Orlison was given a heroic funeral; it was densely attended and an extremely emotional event. “Doc Vance” was considered America's greatest hero and he was showered in accolades and tears. One man that attended, the Brit Cary Ashton Bradcroft, the Shadow Baron, owner of an extremely eccentric curio shoppe on Flicker Street, decided that enough was indeed enough. SkullCorp had to be destroyed. Cary and his undead twin Ashton Cary Bradcroft, now known only as Nocturno, took their long fulminating plans into fruition. As Cary made his way to their manor to map out the brothers' plans, he was accosted by a stocky sideburned man in a bomber jacket. He introduced himself as Captain Thomas Christopher Ledge, a Korean War veteran recently recruited by the government group REACT. After a fog of doubletalk emanated from the cocky Capt. Ledge, Cary broke in and pointed out that the funeral of such a venerated figure as Vance Orlison might not be the right place or time for “official business”. Ledge answered, “I was hoping for something more casual myself... maybe I'm outta line. But lemme share two things, Mr. Bradcroft... first, not everyone in the upper echelons believed “Doc Vance” was the good little soldier boy you do... an' two: you're on our list. High. Good day... we'll be meeting again soon I'm sure”.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A brief digression: Thomas Christopher Ledge was born on April 13, 1929, and was the first-born son of the man born Kaosong Qua and variously known as Caine Ledge, Bromley Chamberlaine, Mr. Drang, and others... but self-identified as ... Kong the Claimer. Thomas Ledge is a key player in our account as future segments will make clear. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In March 1964 (under the sign of Pisces interestingly), the Aggregate was formed. It was funded by the Bradcroft Foundation (established 1960) and was composed at first of surviving, active members of the Silent Seven, as well as the Shadow Baron, his semi-undead brother Nocturno, Ursulin, the Snow Archer, and the mysterious Dr. E. who was clad head to toe in a gold metallic form-fitting armor of sorts. Sword, Richter, Gadgeteer V, the Kraken, Anton Gamble and Bram Vallard in his Saturnine ID (he claimed madly that the Apparition was busy on missions in the Far East) rounded out the team. Sidonie Vossius, retired as the Duellist, ran Vossius Metalwerks with Andreas, and they had made the shift in the company's emphasis from munitions to appliances since their father's death in 1953. The Korean War was the last war Vossius supplied hardware to.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Aggregate was the Bradcroft brothers' attempt to consolidate and expand Vance's basic concept for the Silent Seven but instead of a small unit of loose-knit vigilantes, the Aggregate was conceived as a larger umbrella outfit, a haven of sorts, for any specially-talented individuals who could be coerced into attacking Skull's power-mad agenda. The eleven founding members were in accord with this objective. While imprisoned by the Obscuros sect and tortured in Exodesia, Cary Bradcroft had an epiphany about such a group.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">III. Prodigies</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Before any further discussion of the Aggregate, we must trip a small bit back in time to the heyday of Phileas Caleb's vaunted “Operation: Outreach” program for SkullCorp. We have briefly lit on this brightly-monikered operation previously, but three key individuals “discovered” by Caleb as part of this program figure extensively in the early Aggregate saga. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The foremost of these was Evan Eloy Queeg, pegged by Caleb as the “first known Native-American physicist”. Under the direction of Caleb and Donal Rykards, Queeg was immediately put to work on the new Omegan tech brought by Ursulin. Queeg's personal philosophies and theories, which tended to meld quantum physics and Native spirituality, were right in tune with Omegan (and Piscean) transcendental philosophies. He had the strongest grasp of Omegan tech of any human outside of Caleb. Rykards' interest in Queeg's genius marked him as the first human trial of trans-morphic somatics. Rykards engineered a secret test, unknown to Kong, to bombard Queeg's mind (even more brilliant than his own) with the energies later dubbed TSD. This was in 1956, before the trials were perfected such as the 1963 trial undergone by Orphee deLander. The result? “Dr. E” as his students called him, died in a tremendous explosion at the SkullCorp Advanced Sciences Institute building in Augensburg MA. The entire institute was destroyed, costing Skull valuable research and employee's lives (though the latter mattered less to them). </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Rykards was sent away to study the alien tech in Asia as his “punishment”. Kong hated him, but felt him too valuable to sanction. Rykards returned in 1963. In Hallmark, the Bradcroft twins' cousin Paige Bradcroft was reeling. She had become emotionally involved with Queeg, and was pregnant with his child, but this didn't deter Skull's Artemus Thorne, who lusted for her himself but who magnanimously “gave” her to Smith Fabricand's son John Paul Fabricand. Paige and John Paul were wed under duress. Nocturno, an avowed foe of the late Smith Fabricand, swore John Paul would pay for sullying his cousin.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Ursulin, often derisively called “Captain Omega”, returned to Earth in late 1954 and found his mother Shun Ti at Feng Qi in China (His father Friedrich Einnhauser was deceased by this time). He stayed with her for a time in secrecy, unknown to the likes of Kith and Carnifex. In 1955, she sent him to find his twin brother, whom he'd never met, Anaximander-Zayan. Zayan was a drifter, who took a variety of human disguises throughout his long life. Posing as a beatnik named Joel E. Moss, he was overjoyed to meet his brother. The two became very close, and Ursulin managed to find work and infiltrate human life in the American South. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The problem Kong and co. had in 1956 was that they needed Ursulin's help in figuring out what really happened at the Institute to Dr. E. Paige's child was born late in the year and was named Kyle Fabricand. Artemus Thorne murdered John Paul soon thereafter and declared Paige his. He raped her, and she shamefully married him. Their son Calvin Artemus “Cal” Thorne was born in 1957.</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The brothers Thorne attempted, with Caleb's help, to find the “rabbit hole” Ursulin's Pod had vanished into to seek his help. They found a brilliant young scientist, a prodigy, named Emerson Trent (born in 1937) – who possessed Dr. E's brilliance at assimilating Ursulin's tech with Caleb's help. Trent grew up in a shantytown in Kingston, Jamaica; he was a brilliant scientist, kidnapped and forced to work for SkullCorp before being “rescued” (i.e. kidnapped again, as he saw it) by the Aggregate in 1965. Trent had been told his family was dead, and resigned to toil for good with the Bradcroft Foundation. Trent's family had also been told that Emerson had perished. Phileas Caleb orchestrated these deceptions. Trent's half-brother Euphrates Aquinas Straw was born in 1940, and was brought from Jamaica as assistant to Trent. Straw was not only brilliant scientifically (though not on the level of Trent), he possessed many skills, especially in the martial arts. He was a true polymath. He was captured and tested (and tortured) by SkullCorp in the mid-60s. It was hoped by SkullCorp that Straw not survive his ordeal, but it actually enhanced his already formidable skills. He joined the Aggregate officially after this, and became a key member for years, as was his brother.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Trent, Straw, Ursulin, and Nocturno sought out the vigilante, Snow Archer, in 1961, and soon discovered he was the well-off and highly intelligent Brandon ver Dorn. Archer was the first to encounter a reconstituted Queeg, now composed entirely of explosive plasma energy, who was saved by Trent. Trent would do all he could for the explosive being that had been Evan Eloy Queeg. Ver Dorn, in helping Queeg cope with his lost humanity, made a lifelong friend of the man called Dr. E.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Though the Aggregate was a secret and closed group from its 1964 foundation, Orphee deLander aka The Absurd Tentacle learned of it and often was invited to join but refused unless he could be the leader. The Bradcroft's group then acquired the brawler, genetically enhanced by his relations to Kong, named Thomas Ledge, in 1967. Ledge, as stated previously, was a Korean War veteran and an agent of REACT. He was “assigned” to the Aggregate, and the Bradcrofts tolerated his presence, feeding Ledge reams of mis- and disinformation. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In future treatments members inducted in the late 1960s who do not figure in the mission detailed in Part V such as recombinants Wurm (Benjamin “Ben” Renova), Princesa Verde, Heironymous (Dahlia Mueller), and Gullivar (Enos McClegg) will be covered at length. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">IV. The Earth Mother Revisited</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Zachariah Clancy's hatred and jealousy of the brothers Stenbrau (Anton Gamble and the Kraken) had lead to his downfall. He had gone to work for SkullCorp where he felt he could make a real difference, but he inadvertently learned that Anton Gamble's warnings were not in vain. He vowed to go public with his discoveries. Kong brought in Carnifex to assassinate Clancy, which was Ewen's plan all along anyway. Ewen hardly minded taking the rap as his hatred of the Vossiuses was legend by now. After Cromwell slew Clancy, Dawn was threatened by her grandsire that she was next and should live in fear til the day came. And then Carnifex and Kanabal took the 15 (going on 16) year old Solomon Vossius and fled, leaving Dawn, trained from birth to take care of herself, feeling more helpless than ever. At least her other four children were unharmed – physically anyway. They all vowed that night that Cromwell, Vossius, and their own brother would pay. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Kraken, Sword, and the recent Hallmark-based vigilante Snow Archer (to be explored in future segments) combined forces to protect Dawn and her family, at Anton Gamble's and Cary Bradcroft's behest. This was part of an effort on the Shadow Baron's part to forge a new, stronger team in the wake of the Silent Seven – a team which he called the Aggregate . </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">One of Cary's team took a drastic step in protecting Dawn – Eryk Stenbrau. The Kraken had been falling deeper and deeper in love with her over the years, and, placing the Clancy children under the care of Andreas and Sidonie, he kidnapped Dawn. He was indeed doing this for her ultimate protection, but no doubt hoped he could mend her broken heart. She thought him a fool, and by defeating him in combat, proved she could take care of herself.”But I'm taking care of your whole family. Vance and Cary will get Solomon back.” Dawn thought Eryk naïve; she knew that Solomon was simply wishing to follow in his father's reprobate footsteps. “He belongs with his father; he always has. A mother knows these things”.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But true to form in such fantastic situations, Dawn grew more attracted to Eryk, and she made love with him in order to escape. But she had never really loved one man – she used Gerhardt, used Clancy for status (though she deeply cared for her family with them), and was now using Eryk's love for her to escape. And it worked. But, she realized, there was one man she had come to have genuine feelings for – Eryk's brother, Anton Gamble. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Dawn escaped, and Kraken followed. She found shelter with an old friend of the Clancys – Antoine Grimadi, a bi-racial Italian businessman. She knew she was pregnant with the Kraken's child and when she gave bith, she left the child with Antoine and his wife Chloe. They raised him as their own, Germaine Grimaldi, though Dawn had initially named him Luther Stenbrau. The Kraken tearfully searched for the pregnant Dawn, rendezvousing with his partner Ian Rhys McGregor. But Ewen Cromwell had found them first, and swiftly dispatched them both. He fed their grisly remains to Gerhardt Vossius, who allowed his now 17 year old son to look on as he feasted on his well-cooked repast. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Dawn found Anton Gamble in France in 1965 and suggest they begin a romance. She took him completely off-guard. He was the man she's been looking for all these years, she finally realized. Or was she deluding herself, and becoming ever the amoral opportunist? Did Ewen Cromwell's blood run a bit thicker in her veins than she would've liked? Regardless, she still deserved none of the horrific incidences visited upon her by her grandfather and by her first husband. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Anton and Dawn moved to Germany, where Anton reverted to his natal name Jakob Stenbrau,and the two were soon married in Berlin in 1967. They moved into Chateau Noir (“which they nicknamed Chateau Stenbrau”) , formerly Richter's German HQ but now considered abandoned,a ruin. Richter promised the Stenbraus that he would keep them informed of their enemies – and friends' – whereabouts though they were technically on the lam. On June 23, 1968, their son, Deric, was born . Gamble/ Stenbrau quit the Aggregate, and was overjoyed, feeling that nothing and no one could shatter their happiness. He was deluded. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In 1970, Kanabal and Carnifex, under Kong's direction, ferreted out the Stenbraus. It seems that Cary Bradcroft did indeed learn where they were (from Richter) and he and Nocturno cast a protective spell so they'd not be found. The Avrils and the Fabricands, supervised by Kong himself, broke the spell. By this time the 23 year old Solomon Vossius was undertaking missions with Cromwell and Gerhardt and, encased in a bizarre S &amp; M outfit – an armor/ latex combo, now called himself the Tormenter and had acquired a penchant not just for cannibalism, but rape, torture, and necrophilia. Gerhardt was proud.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">V. Noir Holocaust</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The three perverse banes of the Stenbraus' existence arrived in May 1970 at the Chateau Noir. Unfortunately for them, the Bradcrofts sent in a contingent of Aggregate agents to put a permanent stop to the aforementioned banes. Carnifex and the Vossiuses planned a swift bloody strike but unfortunately for them, the Aggregate planned the same. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Carnifex and co. carved their way into the chateau, but the Stenbraus stood their ground. They'd been warned mystically by Nocturno, and so gave their child to their friends the Grimaldis to take care of. The Tormenter jumped the gun on the raid and leapt onto Dawn, who sent him hurling into a wall. Kanabal approached Jakob, who he tossed out the first floor window brutally. That was to be the last anyone saw of Anton Gamble. Suddenly the roof caved in, courtesy of Thomas Ledge. Ledge pounced onto Kanabal and then pitched the cannibal through a nearby window, bellowing, “And you pansies gave the Silent Seven so much trouble? Whatta joke!”</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A volley of arrows penetrated Carnifex's armor but caused him little pain. Ursulin and Richter appeared on two sides of the hallway. Both fired their weapons; Ursulin's maser causing Ewen far more pain. He blindingly hacked Ursulin's right arm off, ceasing his fire. Saturnine appeared beside his brother and fired several rounds at Cromwell, who simply leapt forward and skewered the madman on his blade. Or so it appeared. “James!!” screamed Richter, who hefted a grenade at Carnifex point blank and ducked for cover. The explosion rattled Cromwell, who was then dealt a harsh blow to the kidney by Thomas Ledge. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Tormenter picked up Cromwell's heavy blade and hacked at Gadgeteer V. Euphrates Straw disarmed the young sadist and then knocked Solomon down with several kung fu moves. Straw helped up Andreas, who was bleeding profusely. Kanabal came up behind the two like some feral beast, ripped off Andreas' right arm, and began savagely beating Straw with it. Poised above a prostrate Straw, Kanabal prepared to do in the young polymath. But Straw leapt up and kicked him into a back snapping punch from Ledge. Their personal politics aside, Ledge and Straw made a superlative fighting team. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When Kanabal rose, Dr. E was standing before him. While Solomon skewered Andreas Vossius to death with his own electro-rod, Kanabal clawed at Dr. E's sleek protective armor, getting closer to its inner layers until E finally cocked his fist back and planted it square inside Vossius' mouth – snapping off his teeth (fangs really at this point), rupturing his jaw, and, with an explosive plasma burst, blasting Gerhardt's skull apart into so many discreet fragments. Dawn, lying in the corner, smiled, and tried to get up and over to E for protection when Cromwell sidestepped her, sword in hand. She attempted to fight him but he snapped her neck in one stroke. Ewen's lovely, vivacious granddaughter fell to the ground, her life snuffed by Carnifex. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Where was Anton Gamble in all this? Several wondered. Saturnine was missing as well, and Richter raced off to find them. Snow Archer faced down Tormenter, with Ledge behind him. Straw was mending Ursulin's arm. Brandon ver Dorn and Solomon Vossius faced off in a brief but tense martial arts exchange. Ver Dorn clearly had the fighting advantage as Solomon was still in training. Ledge grabbed Vossius, and screamed, “Hey rough trade … you think you got what it takes? Fuck YOU!!” and slammed his spike-helmeted head so hard into the nearest wall Vossius went out cold. Ledge was then pummeled into the next room by the far stronger Carnifex. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Cromwell turned, and the wounded Tressilian brothers bombarded him with gunfire. Suddenly an exploding titanium arrow hit Cromwell square in the mid-spine. As it exploded, it crunched fragments of Cromwell's spine along with his armor, mail, muscle and flesh. A fine spray of blood arched through the air. Dr. E walked up to the faltering Cromwell, and, touching him on the shoulder, ignited a propulsive explosion that sent Carnifex into a fit of finest agony as he caught fire, exploded, and went sailing through the front door, his left leg and right arm snapping off from the force of the detonation. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">He crawled away, bathed in flame, and Ledge said, “I know he can heal an' all... so where do you put these creeps when you're done playin' footsie with 'em? If they survive that is....”</span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We're... working on that”, said Ursulin. “Let's take the two with us... I've an idea you'll quite like, Thomas”. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">What about you, buddy? That arm...”</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It's... painful, but it will soon regenerate. All of the regenerative powers found in those such as Cromwell can be traced, via Exodesia, to Omegan and Piscean sciences. We are natural regeneraters. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">What about Gamble?” asked Straw. “Did you find him, Richter?”</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Non”, said Richter, “He's completely disappeared. I can't imagine what could have happened”.</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Tell you what happened”, interjected Thomas, “Fuckin' coward's what he was. His wife and gay buddy are over here dead – where's he?? Hell, his frickin' arch-enemy got his head blown clean apart – good work, E – an' “Mister Existentialism” is nowhere - “</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Enough, you foul bastard,” came the icy tones of Saturnine, who emerged from the shadows as if from limbo. “Jakob Stenbrau is – was? - more of a man than you'll ever be with your ludicrous posturing”.</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Head case chimes in. Duly noted”, tossed off Ledge as he lit a cigar.</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Straw said, “You are one cold motherfucker, Ledge – but in a fight you got my grudging respect”.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Cause I had your back, boy - “</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Boy???”</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“ <span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">- an' you mine. Seen a little combat, you'd know whereof I speak. But you're A-OK with me Straw.”</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I'm so fucking honored, bigshot – os should I say 'bigot'?”. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Ver Dorn, weary of the exchange, said, “With real leadership – no offense Richter – this could've been a win-win for us. But we took casualtie. Hard. Just like when Ian and Eryk bought it. Andreas Gerhardt and this poor, poor woman, Dawn – they didn't deserve to die. So let's get their bodies – and these two prisoners – outside. Trent is rendezvousing in the jet with us – any minute.”</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Richter said, “I'm staying behind, as is my brother. Effective now, we're out of the Aggregate. For our own reasons. And we would appreciate it if you'd let the world think Anton Gamble perished today.”</span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In a way, with Dawn's death, I'm sure he did”, said ver Dorn. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I think we can all relate”, said Ursulin. “Even Thomas Ledge”, he smiled.</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Trent's jet soon touched down. The deceased and the still unconscious prisoners were all strapped down. “Been thinkin'” said Ledge as they took off on the long flight to Hallmark.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Yeah”, laughed Euphrates, “ That must've been a hell of a struggle”.</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It was, “mon”. I was thinkin' we should have a set of permanent holding cells for these assholes when we bag 'em. “</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Hardly a new idea among this group”, Straw cynically replied.</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Yeah – but we should call it – the Compound”.</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Ver Dorn said, “I like it.”</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Back at the chateau, the brothers Tressilian tended to an old friend, badly wounded, and awaited medical aid. Their friend began sobbing uncontrollably, “Dawn – Dawn – I couldn't even save her..”</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Richter leaned over his uncontrollably lachrymose friend, “It's alright, mon ami. The struggles of Jakob Stenbrau and of Anton Gamble are over. But though you will soon be a new man, the wounds of past lives will pain you for some time”, said Richter tenderly to his old comrade.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We're going to invent a whole new ID for you old friend”, said James, “I came up with the the name Jason Barlowe. Thoughts?”</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I like it”, sobbed Gamble, “I think I'd like to be a chef. That I haven' done - “</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And just think”, declared a very animated Saturnine : “'Dead at 52: Anton Gamble, visionary author of “Distortion”, “Terminus”, “Sacred Mirrors”, and “The Earth Mother” - a legend in our time taken far too soon'. Hahahahaha....”</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">VI. The Map to Our Sorrows</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Madness is what we thrive on in these times/ Stretching tendrils to the stars/</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">From nearer suns and distant climes/ It is the map to our sorrows, writ large/ </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A holocaust of our soul/ It feeds us and it drains us/</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A divine madness lovingly wrought/ It always will sustain us/</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A broken id/ A carnivale of illumination</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But in the dark in the pale/ In this twisted shadow nation/</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We merge as we dissolve/ A voice in mercurial pain/</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Asks us once/ how much of what we are yet remains?</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Excerpted from The Sacred Mirrors, “The Map to Our Sorrows” from the LP “The Palest Carnivale”; music: Richard Dannish Bacon/ Zane Whiteside D'Azai; lyrics: Anton Gamble (Jakob Stenbrau)</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Welcome to Flicker Street!</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Henry Covert</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">July 1, 2015</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Special thanx to my wife Sarah L. Covert. She is my dawn.</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Extra special thanx to Thomas S. Davis, whose childhood imagination inspired me to attempt my own original comix stories.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">RIP Christopher Andrew Pack, 1968-2013, a great editor and a great companion.&nbsp;</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: #f7f0e9; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: blue;">Flicker Street, all images, characters, and story elements are Copyright 2015 George Henry Smathers Jr.</span></span>Henry Coverthttps://plus.google.com/103990383640616339933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3852574899003991711.post-9180876718934648992015-06-25T12:40:00.000-07:002015-11-13T14:55:24.185-08:00FLICKER STREET Treatment # 6 - Tentacles<span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">This piece was conceived as the 7th treatment in the series, but can fit just as easily here. What may not congeal for the reader should do so with the next installment, "Interstice", due in early July. In the meantime, enjoy!</span><br /><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">FLICKER STREET Treatment # 6 - Tentacles</span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YsyzOcUmk2w/VZJZ13Ouh7I/AAAAAAAADEw/Wk-AGgCOlDY/s1600/Absurd%2BTentacle%252C%2BHonor%2BBradcroft%252C%2BCejour%2BdeLander%252C%2BEtienne%2BRojiczek%252C%2BNocturno%252C%2BBlack%2BCabal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YsyzOcUmk2w/VZJZ13Ouh7I/AAAAAAAADEw/Wk-AGgCOlDY/s400/Absurd%2BTentacle%252C%2BHonor%2BBradcroft%252C%2BCejour%2BdeLander%252C%2BEtienne%2BRojiczek%252C%2BNocturno%252C%2BBlack%2BCabal.jpg" width="306" /></a></div><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">I. The Heir to Richter</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">In 1955, Kong, posing as Mr. Drang, a Eurasian businessman, approached a brilliant young artist and poet living in France called Orphee deLander. Born Orpheus deLander “Orphee” Rojiczek on July 9, 1929, Orphee was parented by a ½ Polish, ½ Greek father (Mikos Rojiczek, born 1900) and a French mother (Collette Bertrand, b. 1911). Orphee's mother Collette was a Bohemian whose mother Cybelle Bertrand (birthdate unknown) was a stunning model and a groundbreaking painter in her own right. Cybelle met Jean Aumont Tressilian, La Comte de Marangais, in 1910 and they had a brief and intense affair. She was deeply impressed with his many admirable traits – his keen intellect, his passion for justice, his steadfastness, his love of art and of animals (he was a vegetarian who raised a wolf pack as pets) and his formidable physical prowess. Unfortunately he was too impassioned for the cool platinum-haired Cybelle, eternally lost in her own reverie. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Jean was heartbroken; this was his first real love. He had spent his childhood and teens tending to a mentally ill mother, La Comtesse, who demanded he and his brother James Vallard Tressilian (popularly known as Bramwell "Bram" Vallard) be molded into instruments of vengeance against their father's killer Luc-Pierre Montreux. In 1912 Jean launched his vendetta against Montreux as the mystery man Richter, and finally brought down the unscrupulous banker, even winning the heart of Montreux's daughter Hermione. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Richter wasn't aware he had a daughter by Cybelle for many years. For Cybelle's part, she raised her daughter to be the classic free spirit, pursuing art, music, and love wherever she found these things. The roving businessman Rojiczek was perhaps a poor tonic for these needs but he gave her a life of comfort, where she could explore her passions. Their son, Orpheus, was a peculiar child, even by his mother's jaded standards. He took the name Orphee deLander at a tender age to record his endless reams of poetry and sign his crude but expressive artworks. Mikos was less impressed by his son's “arrested development” than was Collette, and pressured his son into sports, travel, and business. Orphee scoffed at all three – his sport was art, his travel inward, his business simply being. Mikos died of a massive aneurysm when he was only 40 shortly after a raging attack at his son, whose presence he could bear no more. His last known words were screeched at a fever pitch to his son: “Get outside more!!!”</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Then his thoroughly narrow mind just burst, as his son answered, mumbling, “Go inside more...”, as he shed a single opaque tear. This became his mantra it seemed. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">II. Distortion</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Fifteen years later, Collette Bertrand Rojiczek was still her son's most ardent fan and patron, and was excited when Mr. Drang offered Orphee a job – to head a publishing/ filmmaking arm of Drang's co. Democorp (a subsidiary of SkullCorp). Orphee leapt at the chance to create avant-garde art and get paid for what he was worth (he was in dire financial shape, as Collette had donated most of Mikos' modest fortune to charities and used the rest for her and Orphee to travel Europe and Asia). </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">But before he even began his ostensible new career with Democorp, his initiation, as it was, into the company was via SkullCorp. He came to SkullCorp's main offices in Hallmark MA in 1955, and began being debriefed on Omega, Pisces, the Terminus, the Pod, Exodesia... all the secrets Skull was hiding and that only a handful (Anton Gamble and Cary Bradcroft, to name two) outside of the Machine knew anything of. At Kong's behest, Orphee was being tested. DeLander had read Anton Gamble's mind-blowing recent books and wished to explore Gamble's theories. As a result, he became, as Gamble before him, a lifelong target of REACT surveillance. After being debriefed by Drang, Orphee wished to investigate the legendary ship Terminus. The truth is that “Mr. Drang” was recruiting for far more than a publishing position while in France in the mid-1950s. Kong didn't want an artist; he wanted a first rate spy and a test subject for a whole new platform of human test trials utilizing Ursulin's purloined Omegan tech. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">For eight years Orphee toiled for Kong/ Drang's company, called the Democorp Artists Refuge while still based in France, and tried not to let the money and the secrets sway his work and artistic integrity. Just as Skull wished to corner the market on cutting edge science and employed headhunters to seek such talent, so too did they wish to corner the market on progressive and alternative artforms – be it visual art, film, literature, or music. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">In 1963, Orphee moved to the US to work in a special SkullCorp division. The pay was wonderful, and Orphee sent his mother money to support her penchant for traveling and remaining unemployed. To be near the hub of Skull activities, Orphee settled in Hallmark (the Flicker Street area proper) with his longtime lover Eugenie Heurtebise, b. 1937, whose brother, Cloquet, died in 1959, killed by the cops after being informed on by his American lover, Anne Francesca. A New Wave film director friend of Orphee's made a fictionalized film about the case called <i>Asphyxiation</i>. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Orphee was intrigued by the hard sciences divisions of Skull – he was placed under the auspices of Donal Rykards – brilliant scientist, hideous human being. Rykards made it clear to deLander that he was essentially going from being a publishing magnate to a less-than-human guinea pig in the eyes of Skull. Orphee was ready, at that point, to transcend his current existence so why not? After reading Anton Gamble's 1962 dice-up of existentialism and radical physics, “Distortion” (not a novel about electric guitars as many now assume), he was game. He asked exactly what he'd be undergoing and even begged the question if it involved the type of distortion Gamble elucidated on. Rykards conferred with Phileas Caleb, overseer of all Skull science and tech (and in the vaunted inner circle that began as the Machine). Caleb found it amusing and said to Orphee, “There's a drug. LSD. Trial experiments have been conducted on prisoners and college volunteers with it. Let's call what we're giving you – TSD. Trans-Somatic Distortion. Congratulations on your perception. Carry on, Donal.” </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">And so Orphee gained access to (and helped name) TSD – a Skull-funded operation dealing in genetic experimentation extrapolated from Omegan tech in Hallmark first in 1956 (when it was called trans-morphic somatics). This was from the tech Ursulin of Omega Ceti I (derisively called “Captain Omega”) brought with him in 1951 when his Pod entered Mt. Mosaic through extradimensional space at a landing now called Terminal Pointe. It was made clear that the experimentation on deLander could go on for a few years if Orphee was willing to deal with the results. What Skull really wanted was a home-grown mutant – they called them “recombinants” - that was a creation of Omegan science. Orphee was a perfect genetic subject (there were others lined up; some argued more perfect) in that genetically, he carried Exodesian blood – his great-great-great-great-grandfather was the Exodesian priest Urias, and his eighth great-grandmother was the Exodesian priestess Alluu, Ewen Cromwell's grandmother. Orphee's grandmother Cybelle Bertrand surely carried some Exodesian genes to account for her mysterious longevity. Based on the exploits of his grandfather, Richter and great-uncle, Bram Vallard, Skull was convinced Orphee had an enormous genetic destiny. And then there was the seemingly natural causes his father passed away from. Were they so natural? </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">While in Hallmark, Orphee had an affair and the woman, Darby Poole (descendant of the Cromwell party's cabin boy Cullen Darby) became pregnant. Shortly before this, Orphee became the earliest test subject of a TSD experiment. He felt guilt, not knowing what would happen to the child, who was born Lars Poole in 1964. Darby died in the early 1970s and Lars began the long shuttling between foster homes and orphanages that scarred his young life. The boy eventually was named a ward of the occultist Cary Bradcroft, who raised the teen as his own son. But Orphee's experiment had had a distinct effect on his son's genetic structure. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Orpheus and Eugenie remained in Hallmark ostensibly because Orphee's brother, Bertrand Rojiczek (b. 1937) lived there. Bertrand was a keyboardist in an up-and-coming doomy psychedelic band, The Sacred Mirrors, formed in 1966, whose lineup was: Richard “Dannish” Bacon, on vocals; Locke (Juve Dugas), Belgian bassist and agent of Phileas Caleb; Zane D'Azai, guitarist/ hippie burnout; and redneck drummer Butch Blanton (born 1949 in Hallmark's “mill town”, Augensburg MA). The couple hung out with the band and met their friends: the man who called himself Graven Idyll (Arliss Gordon Cope), a radical black militant who inspired Orpheus; Hyacinthe (Cynthia Gauvin; Orphee became very attracted to her [she called him “My Land”]); and Fiora Charme (Emily Duncan), who came on the scene as the childhood sweetheart of Dannish but, after he brutally dumped her she wed Bertrand, though she is also in love with Cope. In 1970 Richard Dannish “RD” Rojiczek was born to Bertrand and Fiora. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">III. Tendrils</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Orphee opted to remain in Hallmark not solely because of his brother, but also he was “drafted” by SkullCorp to be a full-time agent in MA. This brought him full circle back in contact with TSD. He finally obtained clearance in 1969 to undergo a much more intense TSD experiment than he had taken part in six years earlier. He decided to split with Eugenie at this point lest something else happen to a child of his. Impulsively, however, the amative deLander bedded the seductive Hyacinthe. Their child, Etienne Rojiczek, was to be born in 1970. He married her shortly thereafter. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Orphee's second TSD experiment was conducted by Rykards and Caleb together. After this experiment Orphee began to explore the extent of the physical and psychokinetic abilities he acquired via TSD. He became one of the most powerful products of Skull's riffs on Omegan technology. The TSD-induced transformation changed him physically – he became stronger, leaner, hairless, with dark translucent skin. One could see hints of his musculature and nervous system writhing under his flesh, and his eyes became blackened opaque pools. When he cried his tears were red. He could discharge and manipulate undulating waves of psychokinetic (or “PK”) energy. He called these his tentacles, and soon Rykards was referring to him disparagingly as the “Absurd Tentacle”. The name stuck, despite Orphee's distaste of it. Finally, one other ability he gained was the ability to take on any physical form for lengthy periods of time – a technique of disguise inherent in Omegans and Pisceans alike. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Orphee visited Terminal Pointe MA at Mt Mosaic, where the Pod was drawn into our world in 1951. At Terminal Pointe, he met with the Pod's pilot Ursulin, who agreed to help him master his abilities, and swore to bring in someone far more powerful to help as well – Nocturno, the undead man formerly known as Ashton Bradcroft. Despite his disdain for corporations, Orphee accepted some help from Renova, Inc., who Cary Bradcroft accused of trying to exploit the Tentacle. DeLander quit SkullCorp for good upon learning of their true nature and plans from the Bradcrofts – things he'd suspected for years but was biding his time (a true Cancerian), using Skull for power as they used him as a guinea pig.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">IV. Honor</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">By 1971, the Absurd Tentacle's dominating personality was overpowering Hyacinthe. He became drawn to Nocturno's homonculi daughter Silent Indigo, whose origins will be chronicled in an upcoming treatment. They had a passion beyond human erotic experience, resulting in an offspring named Honor, b. 1973. Hyacinthe filed for divorce from the Tentacle, and afterward he and Silent Indigo continued their affair and decided to raise their child together. Nocturno had other plans. Indigo had betrayed Nocturno to Kong, and so he “unmade” her alchemically. Orphee swore revenge and left hallmark for a time, deciding that the “so-called forces of good (Nocturno) and evil (Kong) are more alike than they they pretend”. Orphee turned young Honor over to Hyacinthe (now going by her natal name, Cynthia Gauvin) to raise. She had remarried one Phillip Parlington, whose name Honor took. For years Phil was the only father Honor knew, though Phil and Cynthia Parlington divorced when Honor was still young. Hyacinthe was also raising her son Etienne Rojiczek, and he saw Honor as a little sister. She was hypersensitive, sharing her father's birthday, and Etienne was always there to protect her – or tried to be. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">After the 1980 divorce from Phil, Cynthia took Honor and Etienne away to a new house and became paranoid and besieged by LSD flashbacks. She had many emotional problems and she sheltered Honor to an unhealthy degree. Honor's 1<sup>st</sup>attempt to break free was when she grew infatuated with Jesputh Avril (grandson of SkullCorp co-founder and dark occultist Keegan Avril) in 1984. She had gone by Honor Parlington for years, but at Jesputh's urging, took the name Honor Bradcroft, after Ashton Bradcroft (Nocturno), her grandfather. Part of Jesputh's interest in Honor was in her latent magickal energy – and the Bradcroft fortune.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Cynthia remarried again, in 1985, to Brandon ver Dorn aka Snow Archer (b. 1937), an ally of Nocturno's; his ID was known to his wife but not her children. Brandon was the great-grandson of ambrosius ver Dorn, the chief bankroller of the Cromwell party of 1886. Brandon and Cynthia had a daughter, Quill, b. 1988. By this time, Honor was a mess. Brandon and Etienne both tried to help her, but she detached herself. She trusted Phil Parlington, her adopted father – a huge mistake as he raped her in 1990. Jesputh was her idealized dream man who would take her away from all this, but he merely wanted sex and prestige from her, and let their friendship dissolve when it looked like she was no easy lay. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Neither Etienne nor Honor saw their father for a long time. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">V. Apocrypha</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">The Absurd Tentacle appeared in Hallmark throughout the 1970s, helping spark a new counter-cultural revolution (sometimes derisively called “Terminal Culture” after the ship that brought the knowledge that started it all). In the mid-70s he reunited with Heurtebise and they finally wed, spawning a daughter, Cejour deLander, in 1975. By this time, Bertrand and Fiora had a daughter, Collette, and had separated. Fiora roamed free for a while, having an intermittent love affair with Arliss Gordon Cope that spawned Collias Cope. Bertrand raised his two children, RD and Collette, alone. We shall revisit this branch of the Rojiczeks (and Etienne) further along in our treatment. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">The deLanders decamped to England at the end of the 1970s and the Absurd Tentacle and his family basked in a younger crowd's attention. Cejour grew up much like her grandmother and great-grandmother – a true willful free spirit. Orphee wondered if his daughter would bear the marks of his post-human transformation in any way. DeLander became friends with a small cadre of telepathic recombinants – hardcore punks Kelvin Mallory, his sister Fallon Mallory AKA “Mal Black”, and Mal's best friend, a pre-teen Japanese girl Miya saito, whose nom de plume was “Mia Zero”. Orphee also became close friends with Oblidiah Trent, AKA Ras Free Man (b. 1957), a young Jamaican reggae musician who was spending a few years in England touring and recording but mostly just plotting vengeance for Phileas Caleb's murder of Trent's brilliant father Emerson Trent, who Caleb used as surely as he had Zachariah Clancy in Phileas' "outreach" program.&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Orphee also befriended the African-American detective Cotton Suede (b. Pauline Cutler, 1954), who'd been sent by mysterious parties to ferret out the Tentacle and return him to America. She ran afoul of his “bodyguard” who looked out for his extended family when he couldn't – a deadly martial artist called Luna Sumatra. Orphee's charm and charisma soon had them all getting along and sharing a commune with his grandmother, Cybelle, who was as youthful as when Richter first lost his heart to her 70 years earlier. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">In an odd set of circumstances, Orphee deLander simply disappeared in 1980. Some say the parties that sent Cotton to trail the Tentacle eventually assured his demise; some pointed to suicide; some say he faked his death and assumed a brand new ID (things he could easily do). Some say his power finally overwhelmed him and he simply dissolved away, a soul too fragile for this world. That last scenario is the one he likely would've found the most amusing. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">He left behind a thriving organization, Coventry Expeditions (originally deLander Unltd), to an inscrutable young man known only as Randell Coventry, who became the Absurd Tentacle's final disciple. Eugenie and Cejour returned to Hallmark in 1981 and Cejour and her cousin Collette became best friends and drifted into the goth and punk scene at a very young age in the late 1980s. By this time the secrets of Randell Coventry if not the ultimate fate of Orphee deLander had unraveled. These secrets will be explored in depth further along in this narrative. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Welcome to Flicker Street!</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">Henry Covert</span><br /><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;">June 25, 2015</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: #f7f0e9; font-family: &quot;trebuchet ms&quot; , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: blue;">Flicker Street, all images, characters, and story elements are Copyright 2015 George Henry Smathers Jr.</span></span>Henry Coverthttps://plus.google.com/103990383640616339933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3852574899003991711.post-154199596018235462015-06-24T06:22:00.000-07:002015-06-24T06:27:56.619-07:00FLICKER STREET Treatment # 5 - Paroxysms<span style="color: blue; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">This may be the final dispatch for a short while as I work on another article and prepare to move. The armored gentleman below, The Tormenter, does appear in this installment, albeit as a child. More on him soon. Enjoy!</span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-D3j40MaWlw8/VYqu3klCb5I/AAAAAAAADD0/dNiBZSRkhNo/s1600/Tormenter%2B-%2BSolomon%2BVossius.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-D3j40MaWlw8/VYqu3klCb5I/AAAAAAAADD0/dNiBZSRkhNo/s400/Tormenter%2B-%2BSolomon%2BVossius.jpg" width="321" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">FLICKER STREET Treatment # 5 – Paroxysms</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I. Sheba Rising</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Among the more horrid attributes of the already proven thief/ rapist/ assassin Ewen Cromwell the Carnifex was his virulent racism, which surfaced with a vengeance when one of his many illegitimate daughters, Sheba Cheshire (born 1900), had a passionate affair with an African man – and not just any African man – but Abassi M'Nali Mathabane AKA Kith. Ewen had an affair with Sheba's mother, Morrigan, during a mission in Ireland in 1899. Unlike the vast majority of women Carnifex had sexual congress with, this was not a rape. He actually had genuine feelings for Morrigan. Hence his psychotic over-protective attitude towards their daughter. He would visit Morrigan and Sheba periodically through the years, though World War I was a challenging time for a mercenary. Sheba shocked her mother when she informed her that not only did she know her father's profession, she wished to become a professional killer as well. Morrigan thought her daughter was insane, but Sheba had inherited his father's leonine grace, raw strength, athleticism, and rapid healing process. She insisted in training with any kind of weapon she could get her hand on. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In 1919, Ewen gave in to his daughter's burning curiosity and thirst for blood. When they left Ireland for Asia, Morrigan killed herself. The Carnifex never looked back. But his daughter was his obsession for a time – the only person he'd cared for since he was a boy. Hence he entrusted her with the one woman he knew could mentor her, care for her, and temper her increasing excesses. This was the woman called Shun Ti, with whom Cromwell had trained from 1872-1887. Shun Ti had needed a challenge then after giving up her twin sons, the Omegan-raised Ursulin and the Piscean-reared Anaximander-Zayan. Calming the raging beast Carnifex was beyond anyone's capabilities as an instructor, it seemed. Beyond Shun Ti, however, of all the Naodai AKA the Tamerlane Overlords, one man commanded Carnifex's respect – the man called Kith. There was only one problem; Ewen would never yield to a black man, even in training. But perhaps, 22 years later, Ewen could muster the patience to let his daughter train under Kith and to contain and direct her dark impulses. Shun Ti favored this scenario. But she foresaw what could happen even before it did, such was her Omegan intuition. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">For Kith's part, he had not been with a woman in decades, instead honing his chi energy at Feng Qi with the Naodai, who he hoped to lead should anything happen to Shun Ti. But still, he loved Shun Ti as a mother. She even revealed her true nature as Ish the Omegan to her pupil. Kith forged of Sheba a formidable force in all too few years. Inevitably, an attraction grew, and Sheba gave herself to Kith as she had to no man before. Ere long, Sheba was with child, and it was only a matter of time before the baleful Ewen learned all. When he did, he challenged Kith, and the two dueled – it was a close match – one called off by Shun Ti. “The child to be deserves a family – and the dawn of a new reasoning between us all”. Ewen contained himself. Sheba chose not to wed Kith, though he offered, but Sheba did recall her mistress' words, and called her daughter Dawn Lee Cheshire (born 1927). </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Shun Ti offered to raise Dawn at Feng Qi. Sheba, now a mother, was more uncertain than ever as to how to channel her destructive tendencies. During a walk by the ocean when Dawn was one, Sheba resolved to smash the infant's skull open upon the rocks. But Kith had been following her, and saved his daughter. Sheba declared them finished, though he deeply professed his love for her. She was leaving Feng Qi to train alongside her father and become the deadliest killer the world had ever known. And leave she did, and with Ewen, who could barely contain his rage at the ebon-skinned man he felt had tainted his sacrosanct offspring. He vowed Kith would die an exquisitely painful death. But for now, Kith had an infant to raise – just when he was making connections that would further his projected rise to power. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In the 1930s Sheba Cheshire became a first rate femme fatale and distaff assassin. With her father becoming embroiled in ever more conflicts, Sheba learned how to handle herself, to recruit, to train – but always with “daddy”'s ultimate approval. She clashed, at one time or another, with all of the Silent Seven, excepting Gadgeteer V and Captain Caliban. The Saturnine nearly killed her, but this, oddly, turned her on, and for a time she bedeviled him to no avail. Sheba was bi-sexual and was drawn to Crimson Velvet (Felicia McGee). The two finally consummated their affair but Crimson tried to strangle her afterwards. Sheba got away and vowed never to bed a mystery woman again.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In 1938, Sheba was finally caught and sent to prison by Eryk Stenrau, the Kraken, a man she was both attracted to for his intellect and his superior martial arts prowess. She was sentenced to death, though the Kraken himself plead her case. By this time, her father was ensconced in the jungles of Libania, lording it over a cannibal tribe and awaiting the Orlison-Vossius expedition to the Holy Ziggurat. This has been much discussed previously. Suffice to say, the government watchdog group REACT took away Carnifex where, at least for a time, he could harm no one else. In his healing agony, though, his heart rent over his daughter's passing. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">II. Then Came Dawn....</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Dawn Lee Cheshire was 11 years old when her mother was finally apprehended and punished. Shun Ti and Kith began training Dawn at a young age, though not to be a killer. Shun Ti taught Dawn the co-mingled Omegan and Piscean disciplines that she and her great love Friedrich Einnhauser (Asenath-Zayan) learned together in the preparation for their mission to Earth in 1823. Throughout World War II, Dawn was kept safe with Shun Ti and Kith at Feng Qi, mastering all that she was taught. In 1946, she wished to go to America. Kith, in disguise, took her to Hallmark, drawn as he was (and so many were) to Mt. Mosaic. Kith had had brushes with the Silent Seven in the 1930s but took a perverse pleasure in walking unaccosted in their city. He also wondered if their views on race were any more advanced than that of barbarians such as Carnifex, or, indeed, most of the Caucasian world. In Asia during the war jingoism was the standard, but in America, blacks still seemed to instill the most fear in whites. Kith's resentment over his tenure as a slave had hardly dimmed with time. But with Sheba... it seemed, for a brief moment, that things could be different. He wanted this for Dawn as well. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Dawn was a stunning mixture of racial characteristics. Even hardcore racists gasped when she walked by. But the man who caught the shy 18 year old's eye was Gerhardt Vossius, characterized in those days as “the most eligible bachelor in Hallmark MA”. His legal brother Andreas was gay, and assumed Gerhardt was as well. Gerhardt had had a kinky affair with Felicia McGee in the 1930s but soon discarded her. Now she made a living as a stripper. His secretary Kirsten Roeg was infatuated with him, but he hardly noticed her. In general, the sullen millionaire/ ex-adventurer was by nature a loner... until Dawn's soft dark eyes fell upon him. Kith, a master of disguise, posed as (what else?) her father and called himself by his real name (unknown to all his enemies). He called Dawn Lee Cheshire Dawn Mathabane. Kith did not want to be the cracked mirror image of Ewen Cromwell when it came to his daughter and so allowed her to date Gerhardt – chaperoned until she turned 19. Vossius offered Mathabane a lucrative job at Vossius, a pencil pusher job, insulting to his intellect, but the pay was spectacular. He took this guise for a few months, evading recognition by those of the Silent Seven that might drop by, such as Doc Vance; and contending with patronizing jabs by his co-workers, who called him “coffee boy”. He was ready to leave America after all this, until Dawn announced her engagement to Vossius!</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Kith saw this as a good subversive move though. He would return to Feng Qi after the wedding (scheduled for July 1947) and Dawn could be his spy. She was already vastly trained in subterfuge, self-defense, and arts and sciences far beyond the cretins who called him “coffee boy”, beyond even Gerhardt Vossius. She cared deeply for Gerhardt but was admittedly seduced by the “high life”, regardless of the racism she endured. She agreed to use Gerhardt for what she could and report all to her father. His infiltration of Vossius Metalwerks would play right into his existing plans as the Machine developed. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">III. Kanabal Unveiled</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">At the wedding all was going well, with all of Vossius' partners in the Silent Seven in attendance, as well as Isaak Vossius and luminaries such as the De Ruyters, the ver Dorns, the Van Hokes, the Renovas, the Paiges, the Darbys, the Palmers, and other prominent Hallmark families. Some members of each family opted not to attend, mortified by the interracial wedding. But this was to be expected in blue blood 1947. Kith gave away his daughter, and as it seemed no one would speak now or forever hold their peace (and dozens almost did), Dawn and Gerhardt were declared husband and wife. Always one to be late, but always one to make a grand entrance, into the church came crashing – Carnifex! Doc Vance, though hopelessly outclassed, stepped forward, though his former group had few if any weapons on them – save for Ian McGregor. “Let me finish what should've been done eight years ago!” he spat at Cromwell, who unsheathed his own fearsome blade, which he'd somehow regained since the Libanian debacle. He deflected Ian's thrusts, knocking him back and turning to address Dawn. “You! I can tell you already bear the seed of this bastard of Jerissen – do you even know your child won't be human? Mixed race all around...”</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Kith's eyes flared with power. Ewen admonished him: “Simmer down, African. Worry not; I disavow this granddaughter borne of miscegenist folly, but more – I part with a wedding gift. The truth. I've spent the last seven years trying to learn just what happened that day in 1939, and what Deomond's words meant. The human monster we sought wasn't quite human after all – not quite many things – a hero, a philanthropist, an Exodesian bastard. He's what Exodesians call hasslichen – what Native Americans call wendigo. Their power is sustained by eating the flesh of their own kind. So, “Doc”, your precious brother, your mystery man Captain Caliban.... how obvious did it need be!??” Ewen laughed heartily, then spun once more towards his granddaughter, “your husband, you dirty black whore, Gerhardt Vossius – is Kanabal!!”</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Gerhardt was already fleeing the church, as it seemed all but fainting society wives and a crumpled heart-shattered girl called Dawn were left behind. Gerhardt was fast – faster than his half-brother realized. He must've eaten already, thought Doc, and the image repulsed him. Carnifex smashed through the church windows to see Gerhardt already in his car, and taking off. Save he wasn't alone. He'd grabbed a woman, Olivia Palmer de Ruyter, wife of the criminal Anon., now incarcerated for life. She felt she shouldn't be judgmental about the wedding as many were. She was regretting her decision, as, while he drove, Kanabal was literally ripping her apart and devouring her alive to gain strength. As she expired, so did Gerhardt's windshield – beneath the weight of Carnifex.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">With his sword he smashed the hood into a shrieking metal pulp. The car upended, penning Vossius beneath. But Kanabal flung the car's debris far down the street and charged at Cromwell. Cromwell sliced off Gerhardt's right leg with one smooth stroke, and spat on him, exclaiming, “ See if you can do what I did.... but... just in case... you have three more limbs to practice with....”</span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Cromwell! Enough!!” cried Kith from about a foot behind him. “this has gone on enough. You'll never atone for your barbarism no matter how many Vossiuses you bring down.”</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Careful, Mathabane – your daughter is one now – and is carrying its vile turpitude.”</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">With that, Carnifex sprang for the nearest darkened alley. None could find him, though the police certainly tried. None tried harder than Doc Vance – whose brother, all along, had been his greatest, most mysterious foe. Even Bram Vallard, who was as one with shadow, had no luck. Gerhardt Vossius was imprisoned for life but never regrew his leg. But then, he never had much chance to consume human flesh either.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Vance invited Dawn into the family, and she agreed to remain in Hallmark and have her child – she hoped it'd be a son so she could call him Solomon. She prayed he'd have the wisdom that eluded three generations of Cheshire women. Vance bade farewell to Kith but mentioned that he had hired a brilliant black lab technician, Zachariah Clancy, at ORDER Enterprises, who he would nurture despite rampant racism, and, hopefully, if all went well, perhaps Dawn would be open to a date with the young man. Kith was pleased, as much as he could be, and he and Doc shook hands uncomfortably.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A bizarre but key wrinkle in the tale of Gerhardt Vossius should be noted here. Vossius' long-time secretary Kirsten Roeg began visiting Vossius in prison and writing him daily. It seems she had been silently pining away for him for years but never made her feelings for him known. She tried everything to get his case appealed, working with a famed criminal lawyer Hephel Kryle, whose father had also been an attorney of note (and a criminal). But it was no use. It was enough that an insanity plea kept the erstwhile Captain Caliban off of death row and in prison for life. But Vossius did have an incredibly liberal warden during this period, one that could also be bribed for the right amount by Miss Roeg. This led to a brief series of conjugal visits between Vossius and Kirsten. Kirsten wanted nothing more than Vossius' child, if she couldn't secure his freedom. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And so, on September 15, 1949, Jennifer Roeg entered the world. Her birth certificate read father: Gerhardt Vossius. Kirsten stayed in touch with the baby's father throughout the 1950s, though he stopped writing her and refused her visits once it was clear she couldn't get him released. The final fate of this branch of the Vossius clan shall be revealed further along in this narrative. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">IV. The Earth Mother</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Solomon Vossius was born in November 1947 and, indeed, it was only a matter of time before Dawn wed Zachariah Clancy, and their first born daughter, Artemis Morrigan Clancy, was born in late 1948. Both of the brothers Stenbrau were a bit crushed by the whirlwind romance between Zachariah and the recently divorced Dawn Vossius. Anton Gamble was becoming a cult writer of moderate success, mainly penning science fiction but on occasion texts on existentialism and mysticism. His 1948 book, “The Piscean Myth?”, recounting his views on what he saw in Libania in 1939, sold poorly but immediately placed him under lifelong scrutiny by REACT. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Gamble and his brother Eryk Stenbrau were both enchanted by Dawn Lee Cheshire Vossius Clancy, and she considered them dear friends, but her heart belonged to her new husband. Neither Eryk nor Anton ever broached the subject of their feelings with anyone but each other, nor, though Dawn suspected, did she ever confront them. But Clancy suspected. But he remained civil, if aloof, with the brothers. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In 1950, the Clancys' second daughter Maya Marie Clancy was born. Doc Vance was true to his word that Zachariah would advance at ORDER Enterprises, despite much jealousy and backbiting hurled Clancy's way. In 1953, the Clancys had their first son, Oswin Juan Clancy, and in 1955, Hannibal Orrin Clancy was born. Solomon never got along with his younger half-siblings. He constantly bullied and tormented them. He had inherited his father's sadistic streak, no doubt; though no one then could foresee how far that vicious streak would extend. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Despite the time and environment in which they raised their family, the Clancys managed to prosper. They became Hallmark's first truly affluent African-American family. But two things marred their happiness, and it wasn't the racism directed at them that caused these traumas. First of all, as noted, Solomon Vossius was a true problem child, and he began acting out at home and at school at an extremely young age. In 1960, Solomon nearly beat a white boy to death, claiming the boy was a racist bully. In truth, Solomon learned how to handle himself with racist children when he was a small child, never letting them get over on him or win a fight. But now he had taken things to a horrid extreme, as the attack was unprovoked in any way. Vance recommended several child psychologists for the boy, but none could crack his steely veneer, which only grew worse as he entered his pre-teens. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The greatest threat to the Clancys however was from without, not within, and it came from a man called Phileas Caleb. Caleb had noted Clancy's scientific genius for some time; Caleb was a “headhunter” of sorts for SkullCorp. He and his partner, the somewhat misanthropic Donal Rykards, scoured the world for budding scientific talent. Age, race, nationality – all mattered naught to the pair, as Skull was eager to harvest genius wherever it presented itself. So many young people were able to gain scholarships to study with and work for SkullCorp that would normally never have such opportunity. Skull was seen a progressive leader in education and prosperity, and President John F Kennedy even awarded a special congressional medal to the company, as accepted by CEO Bromley Chamberlain. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Zachariah Clancy and Vance Orlison had become close friends over the years, and Clancy wished to remain loyal to Vance. But Orlison desired what was best ultimately for the family, and encouraged Zachariah to take a coveted position at SkullCorp – one where Zachariah could, under Caleb's aegis, oversee and train a host of young lab technicians in cutting edge areas of technology. The Clancys' own children, with the exception of Solomon, were performing at very high levels in school, and Zachariah didn't want any of them held back by issues of their race or gender. Before Clancy could take the position, however, he was given unsolicited advice from Anton Gamble. By this time (1961), Gamble's work was being hailed as visionary in some circles; in others he was debunked as a paranoid crank. Zachariah held little stock in Gamble's theories, though if Clancy did make it to SkullCorp, he would see that much of what Gamble professed was true. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Gamble warned Clancy that SkullCorp was a sham, a pernicious entity whose sole goal was power – that the young talent being mined by Skull were going to be exploited and discarded. Clancy felt Gamble was indeed paranoid, and more, jealous of Clancy's success. And of his wife. Clancy pushed Gamble physically back and informed him he'd known for years that the Stenbraus wanted Dawn – but they lost out. Zachariah pointed out that Gamble's most recent book “The Earth Mother” was an ode to Gamble's unrequited lust for Dawn. Gamble admitted Clancy was right but that didn't justify ignoring warnings about Skull. He encouraged Zachariah to talk to Eryk, but also others who knew far more than he did about the things he was trying to make Clancy aware of. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Who?”, spat Clancy, “Your 'alien informant' “Captain Omega”? Your friend Bradcroft who peddles occult curios on Flicker Street?? What a joke!”</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Do you mean to tell me Vance Orlison doesn't ever wonder about Skull?” asked Anton.</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Vance is a great man, a great hero – unlike you and your pathetic brother – and he's seen a lot of strange things. But he's pragmatic, a sound thinker. You're just a lunatic – a beatnik hack with a thing for sisters. Go peddle it somewhere else, “Jakob Stenbrau” - I'm not buying”.</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But you're selling, man – a piece of your soul – and your family's.”</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Zachariah was by nature a pacifist and so he contained his indignation at this remark and merely walked away. </span></span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">What he was walking into will concern us shortly...</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: #f7f0e9; color: blue; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Welcome to Flicker Street!</span></span><br /><span style="background-color: #f7f0e9; color: blue; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: #f7f0e9; color: #632035; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"></span><span style="background-color: #f7f0e9; color: blue; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Henry Covert</span></span><br /><span style="background-color: #f7f0e9; color: blue; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">June 24, 2015</span></span><br /><br style="background-color: #f7f0e9; color: #632035; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: #f7f0e9; color: blue; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Flicker Street, all images, characters, and story elements are Copyright 2015 George Henry Smathers Jr.</span>Henry Coverthttps://plus.google.com/103990383640616339933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3852574899003991711.post-17719182571843858822015-06-23T00:02:00.000-07:002015-06-24T21:14:59.403-07:00FLICKER STREET Treatment # 4 - Apogee & Perigee<br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Continuing the convoluted FLICKER STREET backstory. Prepare for a savage pulp holocaust, as our beleagured heroes (and villains) face certain death in a South American jungle where life as we know it began for some .... and may end for all! The entrancing beauty pictured here doesn't appear in the story, alas... well, obliquely she does.... Enjoy!</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">FLICKER STREET Treatment # 4 – Apogee &amp; Perigee </span></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YkRDFXet08M/VYkC-MHF2AI/AAAAAAAADDg/dfDaEQIMHSE/s1600/Juniper%2BThoth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YkRDFXet08M/VYkC-MHF2AI/AAAAAAAADDg/dfDaEQIMHSE/s320/Juniper%2BThoth.jpg" width="220" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I. Gleaning the Ziggurat</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">With basically all of Vossius Metalwerks as collateral, and generous contributions from ORDER Enterprises, Renova Inc., and the Paige Foundation, the Silent Seven (plus their eighth “silent partner”, Captain Caliban, who also brought back Sword and Richter for this mission of missions) embarked on their massive expedition to Libania in 1939. This was no horse and buggy poor mans' army as was the case in 1818 and 1868. The Libanian government gave their full cooperation, though the Serafinians did not. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Serafinians had a long cultural memory. They knew the cover story for the real founding of Hallmark: Dutch and South Africans (with Jerissen posing as one) led by the Cromwell Party supposedly struck riches at Mt. Mosaic . This they did, but it was not their true purpose. The Serafinians were a deeply spiritual people, primitive by Libanian standards. Some ghoulish pundits even speculated that Serafinians still practiced tribal cannibalism.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Thus the Serafinians disputed the ostensible purpose for the Ziggurat expedition: that it was simply an archaeological exploration and unearthing of riches and natural resources (And indeed Vance was, among many other things, an archaeologist, and Gerhardt a metallurgist and anthropologist). The Seven enlisted two guides: the Libanian who colorfully called himself “Felix Tequila” (born Jorge Maroto Jr), and a Serafinian, Mokae. Feliz was the grandson of the legendary couple Carmelita Rodriquez and her husband the master gunfighter Sorrow (grandson of Urias and great-grandson of Carnifex). Vance Orlison felt guilt at deceiving their guides and the Libanians that followed them, but he had to be sure who he could trust with the Piscean secrets. He dreaded that his father Jerissen or Urias would make an appearance at such a well-publicized expedition. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">What the party did not know is that they were being stalked – predictably – by Carnifex, who, months early in anticipation, had set himself up as a godlike chieftain to a primitive tribe that neighbored the Serafinians. This tribe, the Yashaharo, did indeed practice cannibalism and other brutal rites. Carnifex was fascinated by artifacts he found with the Yashaharo. After mastering somewhat their language Cromwell discerned that the objects had belonged to another white man they adopted and who also became their leader - Kanabal. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Chastened by the loyalty of his tribe, and feeling he was closer to Kanabal's roots than Vance ever was, Carnifex planned an elaborate attack – to strafe and raze to the ground Serafinia and attack the Seven head on, alone. Perhaps he was a bit mad by this time. But Cromwell had no notion that he himself was the prey this time. The Yashaharo betrayed him, and their real leader revealed himself – a tall, impossibly muscled golden skinned man with long dreaded copper hair and emerald green eyes. As he sank beneath the weight of Yashaharo bodies, he cried, “Kanabal???”. The imposing figure, silhouetted in the flame of Cromwell's throne of human bones, merely shook his head and smiled. And then was gone. For a few moments at least. As he turned, Ewen recognized an Exodesian symbol on the cloak of the golden man. Carnifex passed out then, the first time in centuries.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When he awoke, Cromwell was in a narrow and deep pit. He could almost leap to the aperture above with his formidable strength but … not quite. The golden man, crouched at the pit's orifice, taunted Carnifex. He knew far too much about Ewen for Ewen's liking. Finally, Carnifex dug his bleeding hands into the stony walls and crawled out. He rolled over, prepared to battle, though his weapons had been confiscated. He knew he was a match for this Exodesian cur. But in one blinding swoop, the “cur” caught Cromwell in a half nelson, and snapped Cromwell's back so loudly the Yashaharo stilled their tribal drumming for a few seconds, then resumed their war dirge. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Ewen's body was hurled away like useless flotsam; he landed atop a huge felled tree and lay paralyzed,spitting up mass amounts of blood and gore. “You've never felt what your victims feel... I hope you're taking all this in,” smirked Ewen's conqueror. “Shall I call over some of the tribe to gang sodomize you so you'll feel an inkling of the anguish you've plied on the victims of your lust over the centuries??” He laughed. “Even I haven't the stomach for that I'm afraid but you do – if I let you keep your stomach...”</span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">You're as much monster as I – a cannibal that devours their victims while they yet live... I know all about you Kanabal..”</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">You think me Kanabal? You are amusing... cur. Kanabal is a rogue, a transgressor... he has no more place among the Yashaharo than among Exodesians.”</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So you are an – Exodesian?” Ewen could scarcely breath and his throat was filled with coagulating plasma. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Of course – Deomond, the most powerful but who remains wisely in shadow save when needed. My brother is High Priest of the Obscuros – Alataris; my father Priest Lord Praven of Exodesia.”</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So Jer- Jer-”</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">No need to struggle with the math as you heal, poor human. Jerissen and Urias are my nephews, yes, hence the two leaders of this expedition are my great-nephews. You might even have encountered Urias' long-lived grandson Alexei Corvo – had you made it that far.” </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Without ceremony, Deomond hefted Ewen's massive frame off the tree and to the ground, then stated, “I know you Carnifex. Once I was - almost – like you. But I know you are no Exodesian. Your father was half-Exodesian; you are mostly human. But extremely long lived and with amazing regenerative abilities – even beyond some Exodesians. That is your gift. This - “, he tore Ewen's right hand from the socket and discarded it. “ - mine. My strength cannot be equaled, not that I don't crave the challenge. Perhaps the Yashaharo will enjoy a snack. What next? An eye? Your endlessly bragging tongue?”</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Deomond stood to his full eight feet. “Now go, I weary of you. You're a hard conquest but not hard enough”.</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Ewen spat blood at Deomond, and curses as well. “I'll – I'll -”</span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I know. A familiar mantra. I think you're in shock. Now – GO”. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I can't – walk, you... steaming pile of excrement”. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Then …. and let me say this no more – lest that sodomy threat becomes all too real – then CRAWL!!”</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And for the first time in centuries, Ewen Cromwell crawled, his body slowly, agonizingly knitting itself back together. He crawled through the woods of Serafina, making sure to avoid the sounds of the people of the village. He feared the cannibals he'd lorded it over devouring him in his current state.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">II. Pulp Apocalypse</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Over the next weeks the Seven (or ten) toiled to finish their expedition. Deep in the caverns, at last, they found him – the legendary Piscean pilot PH'NATH. He was buried, as if a king, with animals sacred to the Serafinians and the Yashaharo. The furthest the 1868 expedition got was a chamber above the antechamber adjoining PH'NATH's burial palace. When Orlison and Vossius smashed into the antechamber, Felix Tequila hugged tightly Mokae. These two supposed enemies began crying and, in Felix's case, swigging back his namesake beverage. “What's going on here?' Richter demanded. Mokae answered, “I'm not Mokae, fellas. Matter of fact, I'm family. Your cousin as a matter of fact. And this mystery's been rattlin' me for some 60 years.” The middle aged man pulled off his long grey wig and hat and scarf. “Name's Sorrow... when it needs to be”.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After all the fantastic adventures of the twenties and thirties, in a world on the brink of war, seemingly all of the Silent Seven (number be damned) felt a sense of wonder, of true discovery. They were the fruit of another race, but now they confronted those who planted the seeds. Even in death, this tableaux held immense awe for these very special individuals. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Suddenly, from above, gunshots were heard. The group scrambled to the top. Crimson Velvet and Felix, the lookouts, claimed a huge man was shambling towards them, crushing Libanian soldiers and resisting bullets due to a heavy armor. “Cromwell!” cried Sword. The group swiftly made their way topside, which was exhausting but just as well as Cromwell was barely standing when they set eyes on him. Delusional, he screamed, “You want to eat me... sodomize me.... what? Here's my other hand... oh, it's full at the moment.” He was holding Felix Tequila by the throat. He'd also managed to strap on a gun belt and two daggers prior to the Libanians firing on him. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Sorrow spoke loudly over the chaos, “Let's do this right, great-grandpa... me an' you, a duel at dawn... near PH'NATH's grave... Ain't it perfect?”</span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">You... idiot”, mumbled Ewen Cromwell as he crushed Felix Tequila's windpipe. The once always animated Libanian fell to the ground, another pile of rubbish beneath Carnifex's bloodstained boots. Ewen yammered, as shock rippled through the Seven, “Look at this.... a stub!! How can I be a proper-like gunfighter with this??”</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Sorrow answered, “One on one, Cromwell...me and you. Now.”</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Ian Rhys McGregor shouted, “I can take him now; don't do this Corvo!”</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">"Grandfather!" implored Richter.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Sorrow”, said Alexei as he easily outdrew and pumped six bullets into the already gore-soaked Carnifex. They were exploding bullets as well, so Cromwell was bit twice by the same vermin as Sorrow was fond of saying.</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Before anyone could react, the one-handed Carnifex drew and shot Sorrow in the heart three times. As his blood painted the air, he gasped, “98 years... not.. tooo.. bad a … ru...”</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">By this time McGregor was on Cromwell with his blades, further carving the already ravaged man whose blood he wished he'd not share. But he'd spill as much as he could this day. Cromwell punched Sword once in the gut and Ian flew into a nearby jeep. Crimson Velvet caught his legs with her whip while Richter emptied several rounds into him. Cromwell toppled and didn't move. Gerhardt oddly held back but Vance grabbed Cromwell by the face and punched him so hard his own hand broke. But Cromwell fell.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Anyone for torture”, joked a misty-eyed Gadgeteer V as Sidonie screamed, “Get Up... get up!!!!” To all's amazement, Ewen stirred. Andreas stabbed him in the side with a very long needle that emitted a very deadly electrical display. Everything was foggy for Ewen Cromwell then. His body was struggling to heal . He began to stagger towards the jeep where Ian was out cold. “NOOOO!!” Screamed Sidonie, and she never screamed in vain or for cheap histrionics. She leaped in the way of Ewen and his sword-swinging descendant and recalled for a brief second when Ian first called her the Duellist and gave her the cutlas carved from a meteorite. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Off came Cromwell's “good” arm. He dove face down to the mud, his blood pooling around him. Felicia was deeply shaken, as were they all to varying degrees. “What do we do now?”</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Vance answered, “we bury our dead, we make arrangements to take the burial chamber back, and we wow the world... at what cost though. Lord...”</span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And him?” </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We leave him here. The Serafinians are coming. The Yashaharo have been roused. Maybe they'll eat him... what's left anyway.”</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A clean cut lad of perhaps 25 whose only evidence he'd made his way to the Libanian holy village was a drop or two of mud on his pristine slacks appeared. “We've got it chief. This was a REACT sanctioned operation – not the private expedition you blue bloods thought. You can bury your friends; they're natives, but the Ziggurat and everything inside – and what's left of this man here – are ours. Any resistance will be seen as an act of treason against Allied forces – and we are on the cusp of war from the swords – pardon – I hear rattling”.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It took all Doc had to not splatter this dandy's face across the tundra. He had to contain the throbbing in his temples. Almost as an aside, Gerhardt caught the man's eye. “Mr. Vossius – you do great work for our troops. Keep grindin' 'em out. By the way, I love that little necklace you have on. Familiar somehow.” </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Hmm. Don't see how. It's older than your grandfather I'm sure”. And that was about as animated as the “new reformed Captain Caliban” behaved from the time Cromwell appeared, much to Vance's chagrin. Perhaps his brother hadn't changed... </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The chaos resolved itself, the REACT team took it all and two heroic men – Felix Tequila, and his grandfather, the seemingly immortal Sorrow, were given funerals worthy of the greatest Libanian heroes. And so, the Seven had been stalked after all, not by Jerissen or Urias, but by Carnifex and (fortunately) Deomond, and, with incredible stealth, by a nascent US government organization that we will revisit many a time in this narrative – REACT.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">III. REACT</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">REACT (originally “Reaction Enforcement Alliance for Counter-Threats”; as of 1968 “REactionary Agency for Counter-Terrorism”) was created, originally, as a high alert intelligence gathering/ information clearing house in anticipation of the Allied forces' entry into WWII. The events in Libania completely altered the scope of the organization. While an organization such as OSS was a wartime intelligence apparatus that morphed after World War II into the CIA, REACT's goals crystallized rather quickly. Intelligence on the alleged presence of non-human races and tech on Earth had been gathered for several years, however crudely. But the very publicly reported Libanian expedition forced facts into the light that begged corroboration. And the most perplexing item was that FDR himself ordered the Seven to retire their vigilantism and concentrate on the domestic war effort, or, were they so inclined, to enlist in the armed forces. As any such organization with a shred of integrity and who espoused the freedoms the war was ostensibly being fought for, they nearly all retired their masked personae. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Sword and Richter returned to their native countries. Isaak Vossius formally adopted Sidonie, and she and her half-brother Andreas bonded. She knew the torment he was going through being a closeted gay man in the macho US political clime. Gerhardt saw the losses he suffered as a result of the expedition easily reverse themselves. War is big business, and someone's blood is always pumping those iron cannon shells that Vossius made its millions off of in the first war. Felicia McGee retired; she ended up as an “exotic dancer”. Anton Gamble became a controversial author and his brother Eryk Stenbrau enlisted in the military, where he endured much anti-German sentiment. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Only “Doc Vance” and the man born James Vallard Tressilian remained engaged in the war effort but on their own terms. REACT “deputized” Vance Orlison, and he fought saboteurs and axis madmen all through the war. The mysterious Tressilian embarked on black ops missions for the Allies, though occasionally would find himself working the other team, as it were. Much more mercurial than his brother, who was a tremendous aid to the French resistance, the Apparition was his own man, first and foremost, and took orders from no one. Only occasionally did the Saturnine emerge and dispense his sense of justice, though usually in urban settings and not so much in America. Bram Vallard, as he most preferred to be called, may've been insane, so he jested, but he was no fool...</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">To close on REACT for now, it will become apparent that REACT and its most denounced foes after the war were inextricably linked; ostensibly enemies but deeply in bed together.&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">This echoes the OSS' use of Nazi fugitives to help build the CIA, or Werner von Braun being the head honcho of American rocket technology. But not all heroes subscribed to this “necessary evil”, and fought to cease the pandemic of duelling ideologies being really just a Janus coin...</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Welcome to Flicker Street!</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Henry Covert</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">June 23, 2015</span></span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: #f7f0e9; color: blue; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Flicker Street, all images, characters, and story elements are Copyright 2015 George Henry Smathers Jr.</span>Henry Coverthttps://plus.google.com/103990383640616339933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3852574899003991711.post-21722860162653160022015-06-19T18:13:00.002-07:002015-09-03T21:56:34.326-07:00FLICKER STREET Treatment # 3 - Arcs<span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And so continues the back story of FLICKER STREET. Enjoy!</span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--y8rUmY1xpE/VYS-KzjmcUI/AAAAAAAADDE/Et5fENYRNpg/s1600/Kith0002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--y8rUmY1xpE/VYS-KzjmcUI/AAAAAAAADDE/Et5fENYRNpg/s400/Kith0002.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">FLICKER STREET Treatment # 3: Arcs</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I. Twilight of the Pulps</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">To constitute an actual seventh member roster of the Silent Seven, as Saturnine and Apparition were in fact one man, Doc Vance and Richter drafted in a young girl (17) named Felicia McGee, who wore a red luminescent form-fitting uniform as Crimson Velvet. Her weapon of choice was a whip, though she also wielded a mean stiletto. She was an amazing fighter, and asked each of the group to train her further as she was eager to learn. They soon found out that she was an escapee from an orphanage where she was sexually abused. Gerhardt Vossius took an immediate interest in her, which did not bode well. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It was around this time that Sidonie Van Kant, the Duellist, was revealed to be the daughter of Isaak Vossius and one Gretel Van Kant – hence an heir to Vossius Metalwerks and half-sister of Andreas Vossius – Gadgeteer V. She bore no blood relation to Gerhardt Vossius, the head of the corporation of his (legal) father. The ailing Isaak grew more and more disenchanted with his “son”'s decadence and squandering of the Vossius fortune. Andreas was the legitimate heir but was immersed in his crimefighting and research as Gadgeteer V. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As the 1930s waned, great fortune (though not financial) came to the Silent Seven. They had managed to break apart Boston Haverty's massive racketeering mob. The man called Anon., was revealed to be none other than Hallmark founder Ananias de Ruyter's son Victor – a chief heir to ORDER Enterprises. Soon, in 1937, new blood infused the team. Sword and Richter both took leave of absences to Europe, but were ably replaced by two new young mystery men on the scene, filling the quota of seven members. Ascendant chairman (once again) Doc Vance welcomed a protege of his, Jakob Stenbrau, a second generation German immigrant who fought crime (and wrote books) under the persona of Anton Gamble. Gamble, like Orlison, was something of a polymath, and penned endless tracts of visionary existentialist thought. And he could hold his own in combat. As could his brother Eryk, the other new member, who operated under the name the Kraken, after his favorite mythological beast. The Kraken wore a special jet pack that could convert to a submersible tank, and he plied the Stasis ray gun, which could paralyze his foes for short bursts. He was also an amazing aficionado of mixed martial arts.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Only the vile Kanabal eluded the group among their local foes. In 1938, Vance was given a proposal by his half-brother Gerhardt. Gerhardt would take a huge risk to the Vossius corporation and fund not only an all-out nationwide manhunt for the cannibal-at-large but also he would fund the ultimate expedition to the Holy Ziggurat. He knew he was disappointing their dying father, and wished to atone. Vance, for all his misgivings, placed his trust in his brother but elicited the one condition Vance knew Gerhardt would place on the arrangement. “Let me be – the silent partner – yours specifically – to the Silent Seven. I have the skills and talents of our father; it is time I turned them to good. I wish to emulate you – to know what it is to be – a hero”.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">What would you call yourself?”</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">You, my brother are superego, the superman – I am id, wild, perfectly able to mete out justice as the Saturnine. I was inspired by Shakespeare – were Will a pulp scribe. Call me – Captain Caliban”.</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Brilliant!” replied Vance.</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And so the grand adventure of 1939 awaited the Silent Seven as Doc Vance prepared his ultimate excavation of the Piscean ruins at the Libanian Ziggurat. It was to be their last grand adventure as a team, though hardly the most intense drama they were to experience, especially as they knew Kanabal awaited them in Hallmark. But before the career of the Silent Seven draws to a close, first we must pole vault time and space and reveal another chapter in the lives of one of our key players. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">II. The Man Who Would Be Kong</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As of 1931, The man born Caine Ledge had now learned at least some of his true heritage. The woman he now knew as his grandmother, Shun Ti, guided him through Feng Qi and the secrets of the Tamerlane Overlords. She also explained his genetic heritage. In 1900, Caine Ledge's father Sun-Kao Qua dallied with a Swiss maiden, Ingeborg Olaus, but apparently discarded her when he learned she was pregnant. Shun Ti made it possible for her to get to America, where, on the plane, she met salesman Richard Ledge, who was immediately smitten with her. They were soon wed, and Ingeborg Olaus became known as Inga Ledge. She gave birth to Caine in 1901, but Richard soon proved cold, conservative, repressed yet sexually demanding. As discussed elsewhere, Caine's long journey to his destiny was finally at least partially fulfilled upon meeting his biological father, who impressed him no more than did Richard Ledge, and his grandmother, who he began to hold great reverence for. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Kaosong Qua, to use his birth name, studied the co-mingled knowledge of Omega Ceti I and Pisces, which were pooled when Einnhauser and Shun Ti trained together for their mission.&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Shun Ti's training came easily, and the man who now chose to call himself “Kong” mastered arcane Piscean rites and thaumaturgy and Omegan technology and sciences. The combination of the disciplines of the warring races in the hands of Kong was what set him apart – on a plane with the Exodesians.</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But many within the Tamerlane Overlord circle, including even Sun-Kao, resented this exceptional outsider and his access to their most vaunted secrets. Many attempts were made on Kong's life, but he survived; his attackers rarely did. Kong was no longer the easy prey he could have been upon his arduous trek to Feng Qi. The day came, in 1935, when Kong challenged his own duplicitous father – and cut him down savagely. The years of abuse and uncertainty as to who he was and where he belonged exploded. It was decided, against Shun Ti's will by the Overlords that Kong learn the full truth about Ingeborg Olaus.&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Kong learned from brigands in the circle that, though his biological father was now deceased, Sun-Kao's mistress ran his affairs. Unsure what to expect, he was floored when the woman he recalled as “Inga Ledge”, was now confronting him as Ingeborg Olaus, and, alongside her, her young son Coyle, who had taken the name Einnhauser, after his own biological father.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Caine soon learned that his real parents met while in the service of Urias, an Exodesian wielder of magick. Ingeborg told him he was of the house of Tamerlane and could claim that name as well. She told him his destiny as leader of a Pan-Asian group, the Hei Naodai (“Black Skull”).&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Kong ruminated on this, not admitting that Shun Ti had told him she assembled the fragments of the Naodai herself when she came to China. Ingeborg admitted that the Tamerlane clan had killed Richard, and she offered to supervise Kong's training in the skills of the Tamerlane Overlords – martial arts, alchemy, magicks. She knew that he was already Shun Ti's most outstanding pupil but felt he was not prepared for a meeting with the infamous thaumaturge Urias. Shun Ti ostensibly obliged Ingeborg all of this, though she truly believed Olaus and her son Coyle were power-mad fools far out of their depth. Ingeborg was deluded in that she felt as soon as Urias was back from his world-spanning travels, he would be hers. Rather than endure being wrong, she took her own life while he was gone, leaving Coyle in the care of his father's lover Shun Ti.</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In 1937, Kong at last met Urias, who was in dire shape after a recent defeat at the hands of his uncle, Deomond, the most powerful living Exodesian. Urias put Tsun-lun Liao (“The Claimer”) in charge of Kong's training. Kith (Abassi M' Nali Mathabane) became Kong's new spiritual mentor. Kong, now accepted by the Tamerlanes, rallied them, intrigued by Sun-Kao's dream of Pan-Asian unity. Sun-Kao's father had led Hei Naodai (Black Skull Society), which was founded by a Japanese, Norumori, in the late 19<sup>th</sup> century. This man deliberately chose Chinese characters in naming the society, which rejected Nipponese nationalism. Kith was a co-founder – a black African slave trained by the Tamerlanes and later by samurai in Japan. By 1950, Kith was a formidable mystic, on par with Urias, and he had gleaned the secrets of never aging – which Shun Ti had taught Kong. Kith became known as the "Black Tamerlane". Shun Ti and young Coyle took a break from the building intrigue, though the bi-racial boy Coyle harbored his own dark dreams – dreams only suspected by his brother Kong, who defeated Tsun-Lun in fair non-lethal combat and hence was known as Kong the Claimer.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">III. Skull Ascendant</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Wartime was Kong's time to forge a master plan. He learned that Urias had, through proxy, many wartime industrial interests in the US, and that “the Machine” was run by the following: two of Urias' mystical disciples (Smith Fabricand and Keegan Avril); two young scientific prodigies: Phileas Caleb and Donal Rykards; Kith himself; and three businessman/ grifter brothers, the Thornes (Artemus, Augustus, and Geoffrey, who had only recently made their way into the inner circle). The three brothers' company was known originally as Brothers-in-Arms, and supplied arms to the chaotic political clime in Libania and its neighboring country Serafina. Kaosong Qua resolved to join, subvert, and control the Thornes' company. Brothers-in-Arms had its hands in many pies, crooked and straight, but Kaosong had many ideas how to improve and boost the company to the top, such as merging the Naodai, the Machine, and the Thornes' South American interests into one massive cartel with the company's new name, SkullCorp as the figurehead. He recruited Capt. Vargas Llosa, a shrewd young captain in the Libanian revolutionary army and close friends with the younger two Thornes, to mobilize FOPA (roughly in English, “Freedom of the People's Army”) as the muscle for black ops. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Kong told Urias he wanted in, but in a quiet fashion. Urias hasn't the stomach for business anyway and steps back, remaining on the board. Based on his proposals, Kaosong Qua is voted head of the company. For a time, it seems as though there may indeed be honour among thieves, but in the years that follow, the worm will turn. One skill Liao the Claimer helped Qua master was a mastery of disguise, for which Kong had some predisposition due to his grandmother's genetic structure. For the board vote and onward, in the company, Kong will be known as Bromley Chamberlain except to the board, who knows him as “Mr. Drang”. Few on the board, Urias and Kith particularly, know Kong's true nature. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Skull's board coalesced in 1951, when Kong's brother Coyle joined as an intern. Also that year, there was a paradigm shift regarding the Omegans. Kong realized that Urias' driving force with the Machine was the plundering of Omegan, Piscean, and Exodesian knowledge in order to subjugate the earth.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">IV. Omega Rising</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But in 1951, a crucial event transpired. Urias learned that a spacecraft was being pulled interdimensionally to Earth – to Mt. Mosaic. This ship was known only as the Pod, a small ship captained by Ursulin, young son of Shun Ti and Friedrich Einnhauser, from the world Omega Ceti I .The pilot, nicknamed “Captain Omega”, is disingenuously greeted by Urias and Bromley Chamberlain. The good-natured, almost naïve, Ursulin, was there to share his technology and Urias engaged him with trips to Exodesia and to the Black Skull Society (formerly Tamerlane) stronghold (which Tsun-Lun Liao, as per their honorable battle, ran for Kong). Was this to be the latest wrinkle in the tentative treaties between races?</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Rykards and Caleb immediately begin synthesizing the Omegan tech that they have newfound access to. The inner circle wondered why the Omegans had chosen now to unlock for a chosen few the secrets men have spent millenia trying to divine from Mt. Mosaic? Did it have something to do with Shun Ti/ Ish? Was it a trap of sorts? Nonetheless, the man known as Kong/ Bromley Chamberlain/ Mr. Drang saw an oportunity and seized it – a seemingly innocuous shift in the Machine. He officially decided to change the name and look of the company to the public. He called the company “SkullCorp” and designed for Skull a distinctive, albeit exotic, symbol/ logo. He folded the Omegan characters for “chaos” and “song” into a stylized skull designed in Exodesia. The result was the SkullCorp logo. Thus, in 1951, SkullCorp proper was unveiled to the world, which, alas, was never to be remotely the same.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Three years on (1954), Kong controlled a small but expanding business/ criminal empire; was a master of martial arts and of mystic arts; was an unparalleled master of disguise; and had the intelligence to absorb even more knowledge at a staggering rate, making his knowledge of science – Omegan, Piscean, and Exodesian alike – unparallelled. He decided the Black Skull Society – some of whom were his cousins – would be his personal fighting force, once he took care of Liao, who he'd wearied of. And he had an army in South America, training towards their inscrutable “revolution”, under Vargas Llosa, agent and friend of the the business geniuses the Thornes. His blueprint for world domination was seemingly unopposed. But only seemingly.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Unfortunately, the once-naive Ursulin learned he'd been used, and learned to what extent. He vowed to bring down SkullCorp, even though he had no allies on his native world or on his currently adopted one. So he soared away, alone and afraid back into a dimensional rift such as the one he emerged from (called a “rabbit hole” by Phileas Caleb, who had an immense crush on the captain). This was in 1954. Urias had had enough of Kong, and sought to take the company by proxy. Kong confronted him in an all-out battle for supremacy. The student outstripped the teacher, however. Licking his considerable wounds, Urias, a proud priest of the Exodesian clan the Obscuros for three centuries, boiled with rage but accepted Kong's offer to remain with SkullCorp, but only if he could do his work back in Exodesia. Magnanimously, Kong's accepted his offer as his only other plans for Urias were slow torture and death. Kong also slew Tsun-lun the former Claimer in short order, leaving his wife a widow and four sons bereft of a father. Kong was to destroy many families in his life. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Kong then let the Thornes handle most of the business; Phileas Caleb and Donal Rykards the science; Fabricand and Avril the occult studies, and Kith lead the Hei Naodai. Urias was to keep his people in check, and was liaison to Exodesia. Kong was unchallenged, though the remnants of the Silent Seven, after the debacle at the Ziggurat, swore the Exodesians and their allies would fall. It would take a stranger to Hallmark to put into motion a true fight for the fate of Earth – a man called Cary Bradcroft, who came to live in Hallmark in 1956 and was also known – as the Shadow Baron.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Welcome to Flicker Street!</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Henry Covert</span><br /><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">June 19, 2015</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: #f7f0e9; color: blue; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Flicker Street, all images, characters, and story elements are Copyright 2015 George Henry Smathers Jr.</span>Henry Coverthttps://plus.google.com/103990383640616339933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3852574899003991711.post-89406882118123429112015-06-16T00:32:00.000-07:002015-07-01T11:49:47.403-07:00FLICKER STREET Treatment # 2: Tangents<span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Here is my Flicker Street treatment, part 2. Though I envisioned it to be twice as long and to be dubbed "Arcs &amp; Tangents", the pulp era proved too rich a vein to mine and so must be concluded in a third treatment - one that will pick up many threads from the Backstory treatment. Afterwards, there will follow the Flicker Street saga as set in the modern day (1987-2016), which is where the main story unfolds. Perhaps the backstories will enhance one's appreciation of the more modern material or perhaps the richness of it will boil down to rife self-indulgence on the part of the author. Whatever the case, I obviously enjoy playing in this vast toybox - regardless of era, character, or genre. Hopefully you will find some joy in it as well.</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Treatment # 2. Tangents </span></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FQxU4DGKIbA/VZQ0hoz0rwI/AAAAAAAADFc/U9fEfL_628M/s1600/Sword0002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FQxU4DGKIbA/VZQ0hoz0rwI/AAAAAAAADFc/U9fEfL_628M/s200/Sword0002.jpg" width="141" /></a><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-z0BH7D2U3eI/VYF8vwdcPQI/AAAAAAAADCk/3--ToI1jACM/s1600/Kracken%2B%2528Eryk%2BStenbrau%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-z0BH7D2U3eI/VYF8vwdcPQI/AAAAAAAADCk/3--ToI1jACM/s200/Kracken%2B%2528Eryk%2BStenbrau%2529.jpg" width="138" /></a></div><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I. The First Men of Mystery</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As Hallmark established itself financially, socially, industrially, crime was bound to surface. The first vigilante in Hallmark's Victorian era was a mystery man known as A Man Called Sword, or Sword. Sword was the kind of mythic figure celebrated like the legendary gunfighters Mercy and Sorrow. Sword was born Ian Rhys McGregor, date unknown (some claim as far back as 1857, though he looked no more than a hale 30 in his first sightings in 1914). Some later speculated that he was an offspring of Carnifex or of an Exodesian. He wielded an enchanted rapier that could appear or disappear at his whim, and was quite the swashbuckler. Some rumoured that he trained under the Tamerlane Overlords themselves, but his martial arts skills were perfunctory; he had an altogether original fighting style, more like a buccaneer, but did incorporate some wu xia techniques.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In Europe, the first real hero to aid the masses and crusade for justice was the mysterious Richter (born 1892). Richter was at first a loner, but resolved to seek out other such individuals over the years and band together to aid a planet being plunged into world war. Richter's story began in 1912, as he used his interesting talents to avenge himself on the man who killed his father. He was torn as to whether to slay the man or not, but the felon, Luc-Pierre Montreux, was slain by another's hand. Richter was not above killing, but preferred to capture and torture his victims psychologically. He also commanded a loyal pack of ravenous wolves that served to terrorize his foes. Richter lived by his own strict moral code and was unfaltering. It was quite an adjustment working with other so-called heroes, but it was soon apparent he had quite the gift for leadership.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><div align="LEFT" style="widows: 1;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">An interesting fact about these two earliest of modern vigilantes is their bond by blood. Ian McGregor was indeed older than he appeared; he was, in fact, the great-uncle of the man called Richter, born Jean Aumont Tressilian. And both men carried the blood of Exodesia in their veins. This convoluted circumstance dated to the days of another ambitious party to find unusual and perhaps lucrative relics – the 1868 journey to the Holy Ziggurat in Libania, untaken by a retinue of gunfighters and sordid hangers-on. As in the later expedition to Mt. Mosaic, the journey to plunder the Holy Ziggurat was undertaken by Jerissen of Exodesia.</span></div><div align="LEFT" style="widows: 1;"><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></div><div align="LEFT" style="widows: 1;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">II. A Fistful of Digressions </span></span></div><div align="LEFT" style="widows: 1;"><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></div><div align="LEFT" style="widows: 1;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Jerissen's younger brother, the priest Urias, had attempted to crack the Ziggurat in Libania in 1818, and was thwarted by Carnifex, with whom he had a bizarre dynamic. Sometimes Cromwell would work for Urias, sometimes they would partner, but, often, they were at odds. In 1818, in Libania, their relationship fell under the latter of these categories. Cromwell, with his then-current lover, the Scottish Betsy McGregor, and their daughter Stavia (allegedly Ewen's mother's name) and their guide, Jacinto Fuentes, made their way to the Ziggurat's upper steppes – only to find Urias awaiting them, mocking Ewen in believing Ewen could trick the mage. Urias told Ewen he could have the riches inside if he were to surrender his daughter to Urias. Ewen unhesitatingly agreed, though knowing there'd be a catch, he proffered, “What of the wench with you?”, meaning Francesca Corvo, young daughter of Urias' guide, Pietro Corvo. Urias forced Pietro to go along with the trade, but alas for Cromwell, Urias had already impregnated Francesca. Urias took Stavia and unleashed his power on Ewen. Their battle laid waste several of the Ziggurat's steppes, and killed Jacinto Fuentes, whose family cursed the two men should they ever return. A draw, the battle ended with the Exodesian and the seemingly immortal barbarian vowing to meet again in this spot in 50 years (the significance of this date unknown to all but them apparently). </span></span></div><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And so in 1868, Ewen Cromwell returned, full bore, with Jerissen by his side. He noted that Jerissen's brother, the “spoiler of daughters”, Urias (a hypocritical epithet from Ewen surely) was nowhere to be found. Before anyone could embark on the Ziggurat, Cromwell was corrected – Urias was well represented – by his and Francesca Corvo's 49-year old son Franciscus, of smooth bronzened skin that belied its years of hard work. Franciscus' allies were choice: first, his wife: Lily Runningwater, a sultry carmine-coloured beauty brandishing an intimidating blade (who Carnifex found oddly familiar); then, the dread half-breed gunfighter Sorrow, unchallenged in 5 states thus far and only 28 years old, though he appeared no more than 21 save for the deep creases beneath his eyes, which he hid beneath the brim of a fantastically long-brimmed hat. Sorrow was accompanied by his wife Carmelita, also a deadly sure shot. And then came Mercy, another half-Indian (rumored to be Sorrow's half-brother, though the two were constantly on opposing sides in some adventure or another), who toted a full-blown Gatling gun and spoke little, chomping constantly on his cheroot.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Mercy”, mused Cromwell... “I can smell my own. You're a Mercer. I had a Mercer wench once – Edith – back in France. You wouldn't be a spawn of her son Louis would you?”.</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Mercy retorted, “Louis was my grandfather. But I feel your days of whoring are done Cromwell. Your bastards aren't too fond of you these days”.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Oh, and what of Stavia's child by Jerissen's brother? Jerissen, do you think we'll meet your nephew today?”</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I'm young”, called a voice in a rich Scots brogue, “... in body. But I'm Franciscus' age. I'm your precious grandson, you bastard.” </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Is this it? Am I to die today?? Where the omens and premonitions Jerissen? Are we taking this mountain and its Piscean wreck or not???”</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A battle ensued, needless to say. Jerissen made his way up the ziggurat as Ewen deflected bullets and blades. Until Jerissen reached the top steppe. There a shadowed figure, long katana in hand, leapt in his way. “Ah, my wife”, cried out Mercy, “meet the Lady Ronin”. Who promptly sliced off both of Jerissen's arms. Suffice to say, the Exodesian and his barbaric accomplice didn't make it into the ziggurat that day. Which only fuelled Cromwell's frenzy to penetrate Mt. Mosaic.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The coterie of gunfighters, adventurers, and Libanians (and Libanian adventurers) owing their blood and preternatural abilities to Exodesia will be explored further along in this narrative. But to answer a dangling question from our previous segment, the man to be called Sword is indeed the great-uncle of the French mystery man Richter. As can be inferred from the above exchanges, Franciscus and Ian were half-brothers, spawn of Urias. Franciscus' son by Lily was Sorrow, who, by that time, in the course of his adventures, bedded a French noblewoman, Jeanne Aumont, and gave birth to one Armand Tressillian – the father of Jean Aumont Tressilian, AKA Richter, and of his sister Edith and his brother James Vallard Tressilian (about whom, much more to follow). </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">III. The Pulp Ethos</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Ewen Cromwell was a mercenary, but no less so were the bankers and industrialists that bled dry Hallmark's booming immigrant population. Wage slavery was en vogue and what could not be done legally was given over to vice. But one man began a movement to challenge Hallmark's corruption and liberate its cowering masses from its crime wave. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The first man native to Hallmark to be hailed as an adventurer was Dr. Vance Ewen Orlison (born 1893). Vance's middle name derived from his father Basil's awe at the achievements of Ewen Cromwell, the man who shepherded the party that essentially founded hallmark (Vance was never thrilled about this). As a doctor, and as a man, Vance was a true polymath; his friends and closest associates affectionately dubbed him “Doc Vance”. Orlison's extraordinary talents stem from the fact that he was the product of a fevered affair between the renegade Exodesian Jerissen and Basil Orlison's daughter Ilona. Almost a decade later, Ilona's very married twin sister Enola would find herself expecting a child by the wily Jerissen as well, a child no less amazing, but of a different bent than Vance.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Vance first began using his talents to do good in 1921. A decorated veteran of the Great War, and recipient of numerous degrees before then, Vance saw a need to protect his city, his country, and his world from the worst mankind (and other-kind) had to offer. He accepted that he was only half-human, but despised the Exodesians for the moral vacuum that they inhabited in feeling humans were fodder for their manipulations and schemes. He hated his father and uncle most of all, and clashed with them both on occasion. He was spoiling for a chance to ruin Ewen Cromwell, and reveal the co-founder of his city as the ruthless killer Carnifex. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But Vance realized that despite his many gifts, Hallmark's “bronze demi-god of super-strength and super-science” (as one lovely reporter who wished to bed him dubbed him) could not hope to win alone against the Exodesians and the other criminal elements proliferating in hallmark (mainly in the form of corrupt politicians and businessmen). So it came as a surprise to begin hearing about brutal beatings administered to petty crooks in the streets as well as portentous warnings publicly targeted at compromised public figures. This trend began in 1926, and continued unabated over the next year or so. The perpetrator began making sure the newspapers (especially the mob-controlled Occidental) began crediting his work to the Apparition. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Then, another rash of crimefighting began – more brutal, more freewheeling than that of that of the Apparition – gang members began suffering gangland style executions at the hands of a bloodthirsty vigilante who called himself the Saturnine. The authorities feared a rash of copycat vigilantes – and, in a few short years, their fears came true. Vance listened intently for activity involving his own old hero, the man called Sword, but to no avail. Vance's research and travels had convinced him that Ian Rhys McGregor was indeed his first cousin and that they were like-minded in their desire to stop their Exodesian fathers. Vance even dreamt of an expedition to the Ziggurat – an adventure he was born for. Vance also felt Mt. Mosaic itself, ruled unsafe and containing naught but the wealth Hallmark's founders gleamed from it, was nonetheless housing secrets beyond even his far-flung imaginings.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Late in 1927, Vance was called on by one Andreas Vossius, the son of Isaak Vossius, one of Ambrosius ver Dorn's Dutch retinue in 1886. Isaak was actually an infant during the expedition, cared for by his mother Lotte, who had had been rumored to be a lover of Ewen Cromwell's in Amsterdam. Lotte's husband Andre even challenged Ewen to duel – but did not survive. Vance knew right away he's met a kindred spirit – i.e. one who was perhaps a grandson of Cromwell. Sadly, Isaak's own wife was hardly faithful – Enola Orlison Vossius had a son, Gerhardt, in 1904, but Vance's research into Gerhardt marked him as another spawn of Orlison female and the priest Jerissen – hence Vance's own brother! But young Andreas was different. Cromwell blood or no, the young man (21) was earnest, shy, self-effacing, and intensely intellectual. Andreas, it seems, was an inventor – and a problem solver par excellence, a strategist. Vance needed someone like Andreas to complement his own skills and to put a team into place to make headway in the struggle against evil in its manifold forms.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;">“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Doc Vance” dubbed Andreas Vossius “Gadgeteer V” and it stuck. Andreas felt a purpose in life at last, away from a less-than-ideal childhood and much youthful angst. The two resolved to find and recruit Ian McGregor next. Vance and V took off to try to find McGregor for a time, but came back empty handed. To their surprise, a costumed buccaneer greeted them and introduced herself as the Duellist. Yes, herself. She was a German girl of 23 who had trained under McGregor and revealed that when he wanted to be found, he would be. But she, in the meantime, proffered her services. Andreas had no problem with it (though still closeted, Gadgeteer V was homosexual), but Doc was overprotective. Sidonie Van Kant was the woman's name and she assured them she could hold her own. Not only that, but while they were gone, the Saturnine's reign of terror on the criminal element had intensified. Vance feared he may have to be stopped himself. The Apparition, it seems, was much more mysterious, and worked through a network of street spies and informants. He was rarely glimpsed in the flesh. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Andreas had quit his job at Vossius Metalwerks but his brother Gerhardt was now a young junior executive. Gerhardt and Vance got along famously, though Gerhardt's parentage was an open secret really. Vance finally encountered the Apparition in 1929, and, after a lengthy battle, the two made peace and agreed to pool their resources. One thing on Vance's agenda was to stop or at least curb the behavior of the mysterious Saturnine. The Apparition was opposed to this, claiming the city needed someone to go where they dare not. It was shortly after this point in Doc's declaration of war on evil men that his two most respected allies at last surfaced.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The men called Sword and Richter paid a secretive visit to the ORDER skyscraper in 1930 (Orlison was still a joint shareholder with Ananias de Ruyter's son Victor and Doc's HQ was in the ORDER Tower Plaza - a marvel of architecture well ahead of its time; it afforded a magnificent view of Mt. Mosaic). They had been working together in Europe for a time and realized their extended family needed help in the US with the occasional encroachement of Carnifex and his Exodesian acquaintances. Richter suggest they form a loose group and base it for the time being in the ORDER Tower. Vance even elected Richter the first chairperson. He demurred to Ian Rhys McGregor, but lent all the means at his disposal to the team. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Vance had reservations: some about Sidonie, but that was his own male ego talking; but, especially, about the at-large Saturnine. Apparition, who had worked with him before, assured the group that Saturnine was in, and that he would attend a meeting soon. Before long, he did in fact, but managed to put Sidonie and the sensitive Andreas well on edge with his mania. Richter and Vance were both too shrewd as sleuths not to detect something amiss. What it was they would not grasp for a while longer. The team, in the interim, became known as the Silent Seven.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Over the next four years, the group had three arch-foes (not counting their vendetta against Urias, Jerissen, and Carnifex): Boston Haverty, the current lord of vice in Hallmark; the man known only as Anon., a shadowy figure who perpetrated crimes and dared the group to solve them; and, worst of – Kanabal. Kanabal was, as his name suggests, not merely a crime lord and a murderer but a cannibal as well – and one that sent gruesome remains of his repasts to the police – and to Doc's lab.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The group's financial benefactor (besides Doc) was Lambert Christensen, a self-made millionaire who won his fortune in the far East, and who in time was revealed (only to the group) to actually be the Apparition. Christensen himself was a cover ID used by a man called Bram Vallard, who Richter revealed to be his younger brother James Vallard Tressilian. This laid many of their fears to rest, but raised more questions than ever about the Saturnine, whom they eventually learned was Royal Hoxworth, a wealthy citizen of Hallmark. The twist to all this was that Tressilian was a classic case of “split personality”: he was not only Bram Vallard, Lambert Christensen, and the Apparition, but, unconsciously, also Royal Hoxworth – the Saturnine. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Silent Seven loosely persevered through wartime; a moderately changing lineup (including the coming of key members the Stenbrau brothers, AKA Anton Gamble and the Kraken); and harsh revelations regarding the vile Kanabal, as well as the death or disappearance of more than one member. All the while, factors were set into motion that lay the groundwork for the rise of the Machine – and the destiny of the man called Kong. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This particular chronicle is to be concluded in Treatment #3: Arcs.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Welcome to Flicker Street!</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Henry Covert</span><br /><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">June 16, 2015</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: #f7f0e9; color: blue; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Flicker Street, all images, characters, and story elements are Copyright 2015 George Henry Smathers Jr.</span>Henry Coverthttps://plus.google.com/103990383640616339933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3852574899003991711.post-70986523904361394662015-06-14T20:32:00.000-07:002015-09-18T22:16:53.780-07:00FLICKER STREET Treatment # 1: Backstory<span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So here at last is an extended treatment for my magnum opus of sorts, Flicker Street. I began aiming for a 15,000 word 3 part master treatment but found the research (into my own work...) daunting for now, in that I wanted to post something as promised on time for once. Thus I'm posting only part one, followed by answers to the basic questions of just what the hell Flicker Street is/ means/ etc.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The main action of Flicker Street will transpire between the years 1987 and 2016 (I am currently working on the events of 2010), but this backstory will hopefully give a small taste of the background elements that, truthfully, as in the case of the forthcoming genealogical charts, will enhance one's experience of the tale but one need not feel beholden to them.&nbsp;</span><br /><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">One will notice an open-endedness to each segment, and a hopping about chronologically. Some things will come into focus after one has digested the overlapping sequences; much more will be made apparent in the next treatment. As noted at the conclusion of this post, character is tantamount in this saga, but the genre trappings give one a wide berth when it comes to the kind of stories to be told. when it comes to telling this story - nihil obstat!</span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xe_2a3668PA/VX5I3taKmzI/AAAAAAAADBU/rOh5flRyFMU/s1600/Kong%2B%2528Kaosong%2BQua%2529%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xe_2a3668PA/VX5I3taKmzI/AAAAAAAADBU/rOh5flRyFMU/s400/Kong%2B%2528Kaosong%2BQua%2529%2B2.jpg" width="285" /></a></div><br /><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">FLICKER STREET</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">by Henry Covert</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Treatment # 1 - Backstory</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I. The Soft Conquest</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Like many a tale, Flicker Street begins with war. This, however, is a war where both sides are too jaded to actually fight. It is, nonetheless, A millenia-spanning cold war - between the Omegans: explorers, wanderers, adventurers, decadents ...star gypsies roaming the cosmos; and the Pisceans – mystical, spiritual, beyond the temporal or corporeal... soul fish swimming the current of the ether. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Omegans, natives of the star Omega Ceti I, have allowed technology to render them a life of opulence. The class wars that plague Earth are rarely problems here. No one is starving, no man consumes another beast for food. Omega's utopian existence is monitored carefully by its orbital capital city, the starfaring Hemiopolis Fractorium. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Pisceans are close to nature. Alchemy is their passion, and yields medicine, well-being, and heightened consciousness. They commune with presences that inhabit non-corporeal spheres. They have mastered the healing arts. Saurian in nature, they can physically shape shift (as can Omegans). Pisceans consort with true magick. Life, as for Omegans, is lengthy by Earthen standards – and filled with experience and new sensations.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Both races have reached the seeming apex of their respective technological and cultural development. And hence, fighting off inevitable entropy, they both begin annexing other races, “soft conquests”, so to speak... Rather than pool their monumental knowledge for an even greater harmony, they seem bound to be rivals – to compete for the attention of “lesser” races – i.e. those races that appear most receptive to their aims and philosophies. Neither race is, despite their ostensibly benign nature, above manipulation and infiltration of their target races. Neither side is particularly aggressive, hence the temperature of their conflict; thus, subterfuge suits them well as they both find invasions distasteful. Thus it behooves them well that both races can alter their appearance at will. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It has been estimated that twenty thousand of our years ago, the Omegans were the first alien race to reach Earth, in a magnificent starship they called the Terminus. They landed in the mountains of what is now northern Massachusetts. The native Americans believed them gods and helped them erect a huge pyramid-like structure around the mountain. This became an enclosed site and the highest peak in northeastern united states. It was eventually known as Mt. Mosaic.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Pisceans first arrived on Earth shortly thereafter, in pursuit of the Terminus. Though they lost the epic “space race”, which by now was mere sport to them, they were welcomed by the native peoples of Central America, who constructed the Holy Ziggurat to house the captain of the expedition. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After a time, it looked as though real war would break out between the longtime rivals. But neither wished to use such an unspoiled planet as a beachhead for conquest. Hence the shaping of a new paradigm, a concept that was obvious to both races for eons but bypassed by their own stubbornness. They agreed to a grand experiment – a cosmic working. They called this Exodesia. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">II. Exodesia</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In an unprecedented move, the two stubborn races born of Omega Ceti I and of Pisces, agreed to allow test subjects from each race to mate and mingle. And to procreate. Their genetic structures, despite their outward appearances, were compatible enough to produce offspring. Some resembled their Omegan parent, and hence could “pass” as human; some their Piscean forebears. Some were hybrid. This gave the thinkers of the respective races much to ponder upon.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After a generation was fostered, they were given a new home. It was dubbed Exodesia, and ruled by a hybrid child grown to a powerful adult named Phallasma. Phallasma was a hermaphrodite and wielded science and sorcery with equal dexterity. Most hybrid children were male or female, but the birth of a hermaphrodite was always a cause for awe and celebration, for those fully attuned to the cosmics of their two parent races, and their two sexual selves, could wield great power. As thousands of years passed, the hybrid “look” became dominant in Exodesia, thus fully marking them as their own race. They, like their alien forebears, were blessed with longevity – an Exodesian could live as long as 2000 years at the utmost, though it was rare for any to reach that sacrosanct number. Omegans clocked in at 5000 years, and it was rumored that a Piscean could see 10,000 years of life.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Exodesians lived in peace and solitude for millenia, honing their society into one steeped in the esoterica of Piscean religion and magicks and leavened by the luxury of Omegan tech. Humans rarely encountered Exodesians, who could pass for human (albeit odd-looking humans) by this point. Exodesians generally were careful not to mate with humans though it did happen on occasion. When it did, the offspring invariably appeared human but possessed special talents due to its unusual parentage. This new form of hybrid being generally could live 400 or 500 years and manifested various ultra-normal abilities .</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In time, the offspring of Exodesian and human blood sought each other out. After many years of searching, a small aggregate was formed. These men became explorers, searching for the truth of their origins. One group of Dutchmen became determined to explore the mystery of Mt. Mosaic. Their guide was an ostensibly half-Exodesian mercenary called Ewen Cromwell (also known as Carnifex). The dutchmen founded a town in the late nineteenth century that came to be known as Hallmark, in Hallmark County, MA. The path the dutchmen followed Cromwell on was a straight and narrow trudge through snow, and flickering lights from where no one knew shone the way to the mountain. And so, in time, this path was paved into a road that ran straight through Hallmark and on to the highway. In Hallmark County, the road was called.... Flicker Street. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">III. A Tender Alchemy</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It was decided by the Omegans and Pisceans alike that the actions of the Exodesians in spawning with humans, and the actions of those spawn which led to the discovery of the Titanus wreck, were intolerable. They feared humans would one day breach Exodesia. But stealth remained their style, and so they elected one exceptional individual from each of their races to go to live on Earth as humans in human identities, and to monitor and influence events. Rather, to negate the influence of the half-breed who now craved their secrets. This was the first treaty enacted between the two races since the creation of Exodesia. The individuals chosen prepared by pooling their knowledge and each shape shifted into a more human form. The male of the two, Asenath-Zayan, a Piscean, went to Earth to live in Germany as a scientist called Friedrich Einnhauser, while the Omegan female, Ish, became the Chinese master of many disciplines called Shun Ti. The councils of each world preferred the two agents take more inconspicuous guises but they wanted to be placed highly enough to affect change. They arrived on Earth in the nineteenth century, shortly before Cromwell's party coalesced. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Unexpectedly, during their training Asenath and Ish fell deeply in love, but vowed to see each other on Earth when they could. During one of their meetings, Ish became pregnant with twin sons. The twins were born in 1872 (roughly). One appeared Omegan, human-like for the most part, and was named Ursulin. The other was dubbed Anaximader-Zayan and resembled a full-blooded Piscean - saurian but humanoid.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Exodesians, for their part, were sick of the humans and wished to take over their world, using resources gleaned from their parent races. Again stealth and espionage, rather than outright invasions, remained their modus operandi. The history of the races infiltrating humanity is fraught with the exploits of spies and secret agents all the way up to the present day.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">IV. The Cromwell Party in the Shadow of Mt. Mosaic</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The expedition to Mt. Mosaic began in 1886 and consisted of the guide, mercenary Ewen Cromwell (AKA Carnifex, though not known as that to the party, but to his patrons and victims) and his son Cormac Llewyn Paige, as well as Cormac's Indian wife Janella Two Trees and their infant son Miles, and the Cromwells' cabin boy Cullen Darby; The Dutch explorer Ananias de Ruyter, his business partner Hendrik Van Hoke, and Van Hoke's South American assistant Guillermo Renova; the British plantation magnate Dr. Basil Orlison; the Dutchman who bankrolled the journey, Ambrosius ver Dorn; ver Dorn's employees Marcellus and Lotte Vossius (also one of Ewen's lovers); and the true leader of the expedition – the renegade Exodesian Jerissen. Ver Dorn had hired a passel of workers to develop the land surrounding and leading to the mountain and thus developed a small town for shipping in supplies and such along the “flickering path” (as Janella called it). Ver Dorn declared this the hallmark of their journey and hence the small town of Hallmark was established in 1887. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Cromwell, against Jerissen's orders, plundered the base of the mountain for minerals and gems – great riches were found there. Who left them, they could not discern, though many occurred there naturally. Hundreds of rare Indian artifacts remained as well. It was as though there was a centuries long trail of jewels and corpses winding its way up the mountain – but had anyone penetrated the deep rock housing The Terminus? Only Jerissen and Ewen suspected an interstellar or extradimensional craft lay covered in stone and ice, as only they were versed in Exodesian lore (though there was more to Ewen than met the eyes). What did Jerissen and Ewen find inside that mountain? What secrets still lie waiting in the hulk of the Terminus?</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In any case, the founding and development of Hallmark led to a coalescence of immigrant families settling the outlying areas, specifically the town of Gossingham. Soon families such as the Vossiuses, Cairnes, the Fausts, the Palmers, the Parminters, the Rudisills, the McClearys, the Greers, the Westins, and many more poured into Hallmark and Gossingham – and all will have a bearing to some degree in our larger narrative.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">V. One Hundred Years On...</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Please excuse a brief flash forward to gain some perspective on the repercussions of the Cromwell party.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It is 1987. Hallmark is a booming American city clutched, like most, in the throes of its excess - trickle-down economics, rampant capitalism, heavy metal and big hair. The major conglomerates based in Hallmark feed into all of these memes – ORDER Enterprises (Orlison-DERuyter), Renova Inc., and the Paige Foundation are foremost among such corporations. The names of Hallmark's founders adorn shops, signs, and skyscrapers in their ubiquity. But the most massive, troubled yet wildly pervasive corporate entity in our culture remains SkullCorp, based, but not originated in, Hallmark MA. In recent years, the feds, the police, vigilantes galore have tried to upend Skull and find the rot beneath – and have scored many a success. As the 80s wane, however, Skull is on the rise again, finding new ways to package its pop-culture omniscience. For Skull is not like the hallowed bankers and industrialists that built Hallmark. Skull is a “leisure corporation” - focusing on news, media, entertainment, keeping the masses occupied and empty of revolutionary thoughts – hence, Skull's resurgence is a prefect fit for the “age of excess”.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">VI. The Machine?</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The story of the so-called “Machine”, the entity that birthed SkullCorp, lies with a number of men hungry to exploit the growing rumors of power emanating from certain locales and personages. Greed was the major engine, it seems, that drove these men, as well as the hybrid races, and the Exodesians themselves. But in time there arose those who would challenge this state of things. Sadly it took quite a while...</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Matthew Brighton (b. 1903) was a petty thief with heavy delusions, though tenacity was his redeeming trait. An impoverished Cockney teenager, an almost Dickensian figure, he stowed away upon a freighter to Massachusetts from England in 1920 with his pregnant mistress, who soon gave birth to his son Artie. Matthew was a jack-of-all-trades, a flim-flam man, constantly in trouble with the law in Hallmark. Inspector Withrow Saunders doggedly attempted to have him incarcerated, but Matthew was given special treatment by a shady lawyer, Kryle, who persuaded Matthew to wed the mother of his now two children. Thus Demelza Fluke became a Brighton and was soon pregnant yet again. He had a near-fatal brush with Saunders, but killed him. He went to live in a nearby small town, Gossingham, and raise his family under the name Burden. Kryle assisted him immensely, not part of which was that Kryle, it was rumored, had a taste for Demelza (now “Elza Burden”), and, some said, for Brighton/ Burden himself.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In Gossingham, the man now known as Massey Burden raised his three sons: Arthur Burden (formerly Artie Brighton), David Burden (ex-Davey Brighton), and Gregory Burden (ex-George Brighton). The thief and swindler Massey Burden was nearly apprehended for theft and was shot to death in 1934, alongside his wife and Kryle. The three children were remanded to foster care. Arthur began working at 15. All three men had much luck after being turned out of the orphanage (which they nearly set fire to). Indeed, it was hard to believe they were Brighton spawn, for each excelled at any number of felonious arts but managed to stay out of the hands of the law.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In the 1940s they naturally eased into organized crime (who helped them evade the draft), until they were informed of a nascent organization that would function as a clean entertainment corporation fronting an international cartel of vice. They were told this process was dubbed “The Machine” and fell ultimately under the rubric of a Mr. Drang, whom no one had ever spied. The three brothers had their first substantial disagreement over this direction. David and Gregory were wary; Arthur determined to climb to the top of the Machine. The brothers were ultimately in congress in 1951, when they changed their identities one last time, becoming, respectively, Artemus, Augustus, and Geoffrey Thorne. This was the year they ascended to the board of the Machine, alongside the men called Donal Rykards, Phileas Caleb, and Bromley Chamberlain, to name some key personnel. There was even an African board member, Kith (Abassi Mathabane); a self-professed German expat, Coyle Einnhauser; and a mysterious bronze-skinned man called Urias. This was the inner circle of what was dubbed the Skull Corporation aka SkullCorp, its name derived from an organization ruled in the East called the Black Skull Society. Did any one agent of Skull run things behind it all? A question many asked – and many paid dearly for asking. The answer was Mr. Drang. Finding out who Drang really was will be covered later in this narrative.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">SkullCorp's goals were simple: keep the inner circle (“The Machine”) shrouded in secrecy; maintain an entertainment empire as a facade; orchestrate arms for drugs operations to bankroll a physical army of revolutionaries serving Skull (under the command of a man who ascended to the inner circle: Captain Vargas Llosa; Llosa lived in Libania, the country where the Holy Ziggurat was located with the buried Piscean artifacts); and to use cutting-edge science to experiment tirelessly with Omegan, Piscean, and Exodesian tech for their own twisted aims, be they conquest or pure pleasure. Perhaps not so simple after all.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">VII. A Tender Alchemy Refrain</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Shun Ti and Friedrich Einnhauser continued their affair; their children were sent to the planet each fit in best with physically, i.e. Ursulin was raised an Omegan; and Anaximander a Piscean. Shun Ti, whose disciples generally believed her to be a man, had founded the Tamerlane Overlords in 1823 and claimed descent from the conqueror Tamerlane (a figure Ish personally found distasteful but was legendary in China). She trained and honed students in a magnificent temple, utilizing what would be termed mixed martial arts today, but which were ancient among the Omegans for millenia. Rather than experiment as her race and the Pisceans had in creating the Exodesians, Shun Ti/ Ish saw herself awakening the natural chi life energy of her students. Hard science was of little interest to Shun Ti. The point where science and mysticism meet – that rare alchemy – was what drove the woman once known as Ish.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Shun Ti's greatest student was an outsider who mastered the Overlord techniques. He was an escaped African slave who stumbled upon the sanctuary Feng Qi (meaning “ethos”) in his flight from his European masters who were attempting to locate the legendary reserve but failed. He was captured by the students of Feng Qi and brought to Shun Ti, who soon mastered his tongue and told him he could never leave or share their secrets, but he could become one of them if he passed the training. For food and shelter, the highly intelligent and cunning man Abassi Mathabane traded one form of servitude for another. Dubbed Kith by Shun Ti, Mathabane remained at Feng Qi from 1844-1871, when Shun Ti declared him no longer trainable; he had reached the apex and was second only to her. He was acquitted with honor but craved more of the secrets of the Omegans and resolved to find Exodesia. He had learned much spying on his master; but what he failed to realize was that Ish wanted the tenets of Feng Qi exported. Hence, after she gave up her children, she accepted a brash Brit for 15 years of intense training – Ewen Cromwell. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Asenath-Zayan fared worse in his double life. He began his life as an orphan teenager in Berlin and altered his appearance as he grew “older” (though he really didn't age appreciably). When “Einnhauser” was in his 80s, Asenath faked his death and reinvented himself as his own grandson Friedrich Einnhauser II and at this time (the late 1890s), purported to be around 30. Einnhauser excelled as his “grandfather” had, and by the 1920s was firmly ensconced in the halls of academia. He was the first true physicist. Sadly the Nazis coveted his knowledge and he fled Germany in the mid 1930s. He shape shifted into a new identity and reached America, where he hoped to reach allies, but was found by a mercenary working briefly for the Axis – Carnifex AKA – Ewen Cromwell, who slew him, much to the chagrin of Ewen's employers. Cromwell became a wanted man in even more countries then.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">VIII. The Chaos Song</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">There was one man who plundered the secrets of both Mt. Mosaic and the Holy Ziggurat (located between Libania and the trading town of Serafina). He also trained under the Tamerlane Overlords and was given access to Exodesian knowledge. But he began life as a seemingly ordinary Midwestern man called Caine Ledge (b. 1901) – ordinary save that he exhibited an intellect well above his peers in school, winning the lower middle class Caine a scholarship; he was superlative at sports but had little interest in them; and, some in the town opined he may be a “mongoloid” - an uncharitable way of saying “someone with Down's Syndrome”, due to the vaguely Asian slant of his eyes. But it was three key events that changed forever his suburban existence. First, as a teen, he entered into an affair with an older, apparently Asian woman called Ona. After weeks together, Ona abandoned young Caine. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Second, his father Richard Ledge (a traveling salesman) disappeared when Caine was in his twenties, and his mother Inga sank into depression and lethargy. Next, when Richard at last returned, Caine had this feeling that the man calling himself Richard Ledge was not his father, though they were identical in appearance. Foremost of all, he was actually kind to his son for the first times Caine could recall. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In any case, Inga and Richard had another son, called Coyle. Inga and Coyle left Richard, never to return, when Coyle was an infant. Inga left behind a journal for Caine. Caine was by now married to Claudia Clarke, and had three children of his own. “The new Richard” was more an avuncular figure to young Thomas Ledge, Caine's first born, but this ended when Carnifex slew Asenath-Zayan. Caine found his alleged father dying (the third key event in Caine's awakening) and was warned – he was admonished to study Inga's journal and he was told that the real Richard Ledge was dead; that he was the scientist Friedrich Einnhauser, and, above all, a Piscean by birth – not of this world. Coyle, therefore, was half-human. Asenath told Caine as much as he could before he passed, and revealed that Richard Ledge, the hard, cold man who raised Caine, was no more Caine's biological sire than Asenath was. Asenath's final utterance to Caine sounded nothing so much as, “Chaos...Song...” </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Caine left the U.S. shortly thereafter, to follow the uncertain trail left by the two people he had considered his parents but whom now were strangers. In his selfishness and sense of betrayal, he left his wife Claudia behind with three children – Thomas, Delores, and Clarke.&nbsp;</span><span style="color: blue; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Inga's journal eventually brought him to Feng Qi, and a meeting with his real father, Sun-Kao Qua, and Sun-Kao's remarkable mother – Shun Ti, who addressed Caine Ledge thusly: “Welcome home, Kaosong Qua”. Caine Ledge preferred to choose his own new appellation, and answered, "Grandmother? Call me Kong".</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">IX. The Baron in Shadow</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Though they were heirs to his genetic legacy, not all of Ewen Cromwell's descendants inherited his thirst for power. One branch in particular eventually proved his undoing. These were the Bradcrofts. In England, Cromwell dallied with a married woman, and the son was Mason Randell (b. 1850). Mason's daughter Suzette, wed Vincent Bradcroft (b.c. 1875) , a minor member of the peerage, a baronet (see Burke's Peerage). Vincent and Suzette had two sons, Dunne and Malcolm. Vincent was an occultist and learned the truth (or somewhat of the truth) about his wife's sinister grandfather. Vincent was fascinated with the founding of Hallmark and the notorious Cromwell party, as well as the fabled Holy Ziggurat. He founded a company, Bradcroft Ltd, dealing in occult paraphernalia, and hoped to raise money for archaeological expeditions to the mystical sites. Vincent became obsessed by the idea of another race co-existing with humans, and wondered what sort of mystical land they must inhabit. Most just thought Bradcroft mad, alas. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Each of Vincent's sons in their own way carried on his work. Malcolm became so intrigued by Mt. Mosaic that he moved to Hallmark in 1923. He soon wed Blair Paige, daughter of Miles Paige, who was born during the Cromwell Party's expedition. He opened an occult curio shoppe in Hallmark. Malcolm's brother Dunne was a bit more conservative and a total skeptic when it came to Vincent's claims. However, his twin sons, Ashton and Cary (b. 1925) were avid listeners to their grandfather's tales – especially the ones about a second race existing alongside humanity and armed with unfathomable occult powers. Their mother Elizabeth encouraged the boys behind their father's back, and encouraged them to begin saving for their dreams of expeditions into the unknown. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Vincent warned of other races manipulating humans, who had no chance, no say, none to protect them. Ashton and Cary were true believers and vowed that they would protect humanity. Their grandfather eventually went mad from the visions he had during his magickal workings – none realized he had glimpsed the Pisceans' eldritch alchemy and presences that they communed with - though the twins suspected such a thing was possible. They had begun learning magic from their grandfather secretly since boyhood, and when Vincent finally “cracked” in 1938, rather than be deterred, the brothers dove full tilt into the world of the occult. They formed a coven in college with a classmate, Remuel Van Juss (son of Dutch emigres). It was small, consisting primarily of the Bradcroft twins, a young half-Indian girl named Jerusha Dharma, and Remuel's siblings Katherine and Rachael. Soon, a socially awkward and aloof 17 year old with the unlikely name of Myrus T Fellbane was initiated as well.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Katharine soon gravitated romantically towards Ashton and they began an affair, while Cary fell deeply in love with Jerusha Dharma, much to the chagrin of Fellbane. The coven studied all through college and beyond. One of their teachers was Janos Disraeli, a world-renowned occultist who had made contact with presences from other planes. Remuel and his sister fell under Janos' spell and quit the coven. Rachael remained, and the Bradcrofts declined Disraeli's help, feeling it was a path that led to evil. They were more determined than ever to find Exodesia.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In 1954, they embarked for Exodesia in Africa. They were soon captured by two Exodesian priests, Alataris and Urias. The Bradcrofts attempted a peaceful exchange but Urias insisted they were encroaching on holy grounds and must be transmogrified in the “birthing chamber” to be alchemically cleansed of physical and spiritual impurities so as not to “pollute” Exodesia. They went along with this but once in the chamber, Ashton, ever rash, blasted Urias and Fellbane, coward he was, ran, taking Jerusha. Alataris subdued Cary and the twins were tortured and forced to prove their worthiness. But Cary broke free, yelling after Myrus to take Jerusha far away, down the path they'd marked. Cary attacked Urias and Alataris, and dove into the “birthing chamber” where Ashton was captive. Ashton was destroyed, or so it appeared, even as Cary made it into the transmogrifying chamber during Urias' final ritual.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Fellbane took care of the confused Jerusha, and the two made it down the narrow mountain steppes, even as a bright explosion flared in the air above them. Fellbane avered that the brothers were lost forever to them. This was doubly crushing for Jerusha, in that she realized she was pregnant with Cary's child. Fellbane took Jerusha to England, where his wealthy cousin Vanderville Tippett gave them both employ. They both apparently forsook magic, and Jerusha had a baby son, but refused Myrus' proposals of marriage. Jerusha wished to visit the twins' uncle Malcolm in Hallmark at his curio shoppe, but Tippett forbade the vacation.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In 1956, a man calling himself Cary Bradcroft came to attend his uncle Malcolm's funeral. Cary established that he was alive, and had been in touch with the ailing Malcolm, who willed him the shoppe – and his fortune. Cary immediately began the erection of Bradcroft Manor and got to know the citizens of Hallmark. Many times he had to relate the sad story of his “big brother” Ashton's passing. He was open about his mystical proclivities but most felt him harmless – though there were many sorry to see he survived his epic journey. He was passed on an honorary title in England of baronet, and was so amused he laughed aloud one day in his sprawling manse that he was the “baron in shadow”. A cold voice answered, “you shall be the Shadow Baron. And I – I am now merely Nocturno”. The voice was Ashton's.</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A Quick Q &amp; A:</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue;">“</span><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">What is Flicker Street?”</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A main street in a medium sized but flourishing American city. A community in the center of that city where all manner of bohemians and "freaks" find solace and refuge. A "flickering path" that leads far up a winding mountain that holds secrets humanity is likely not ready for yet,&nbsp;</span><span style="color: blue; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">but which have shaped its history for millenia.</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">“What is the Flicker Street Family?”</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Flicker Street Family, as I've come to call it, is a genealogical chart consisting of dozens of families and hundreds of characters interwoven through blood, marriage, and other intimate partnerships. To quote Michener, “It's damned near incestuous”. Or, to honor Philip Jose Farmer, let's just admit that it is, in fact, in spots, rather incestuous.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">“What Does Flicker Street Do?”</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Flicker Street follows the modern-day lives and adventures of the descendants of two co-mingled alien races vying for cosmic supremacy. Flicker Street focuses on the inhabitants of a city perched near a mountain holding secrets of their very existence... and of otherworldly power.</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The story is told in an open-ended, serialized fashion. It is like a multi-genre, multi-generational soap opera where we follow the lives (and deaths) of those that have inherited cosmic misfortune. The emphasis however will always be on character above all. How do these characters live? Where do they work? Who do they love and hate the most? You will become invested in this extended family of modern urban characters whose roots derive from an interstellar cold war. </span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">"What is the Format?"</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Much of the story points in the treatment above will be shown in flashbacks and cutaways. Side story arcs set in the early days enumerated here will be woven into the modern narrative as appropriate. Consider the fragments above to be chapters of unfinished tales. This treatment has been concocted to garner interest in the Flicker Street concept and brand. It is an origin story of sorts for the urban phantasia to follow...</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Welcome to Flicker Street!</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Henry Covert</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">June 15, 2015</span><br /><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Flicker Street, all images, characters, and story elements are Copyright 2015 George Henry Smathers Jr.</span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Henry Coverthttps://plus.google.com/103990383640616339933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3852574899003991711.post-33479434562997558942015-06-13T15:30:00.002-07:002015-06-13T23:05:35.427-07:00Counterfeit Messiah: a Vintage Flicker Street Treatment<span style="color: #351c75;"><br />This is not the massive <i>Flicker Street</i> treatment I'm currently at work on but rather a treatment/ "scriptment" done for a comix story for anthology editor Mark Mazz in 2008 and set in the Flicker Street Universe. I felt it warranted its own short story. While an entirely fictitious tale, I can state that many incidences in this story could have, and perhaps do, sadly, occur in that blurry zone called "real life".&nbsp; </span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span><span style="color: #351c75;">For anyone further interested in Leo Rosegrave, Bryn Deerfield, Liao Jun Kim, or any of the other characters depicted here, please follow my current progress in realizing new&nbsp;<i>Flicker Street</i>&nbsp;projects by following this blog. Thanx!&nbsp;</span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XX1aCfKLEpo/VXyu5wnbBMI/AAAAAAAAC_4/7RQ1NVX5bM4/s1600/Leo%2BRosegrave.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XX1aCfKLEpo/VXyu5wnbBMI/AAAAAAAAC_4/7RQ1NVX5bM4/s320/Leo%2BRosegrave.jpg" width="249" /></a></div><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="gs8s1"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="gs8s0"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="gs8s"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="t08s0"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Counterfeit Messiah</b></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>by Henry Covert</b></span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="iqiy3"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="t08s2"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>(sequence breakdowns and synopsis)</b> </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="b85d2"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="o7f40"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Story opens with Leo Rosegrave's voice. Rosegrave, or Graves as he's usually referred to, is our narrator and audience identification/ surrogate. We'll experience the story from his POV, which will hopefully enhance the subtext and aid the story flow. </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><br /></b></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="q43p0"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="zxqj0"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Sequences:</b></span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><br /></b></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="ldrj1"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="ldrj0"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>1 - The First Interviews</b> </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="zpko0"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="d7n1"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="iosp"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="zo7g"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="owwa0"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="bwo50"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="mn950"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Graves is narrating, but does not appear "on-camera" yet. This intro is a visual re-enactment of an interview conducted in 2003 by Barry Keller, a fairly incompetent columnist for a local free 'alternative' weekly paper called <i>The Flicker Street Dispatch</i> (named for the largely bohemian community it has targeted for almost 25 years). The interview is held at a trendy local coffee dive with an author named James Ray Harbin about his new book, a not so subtly titled alleged autobiography called <i>Ray of Hope: The Covert Missions of a Crusader Against Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking. </i></span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="bwo51"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="bwo52"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="bwo53"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="f_qm"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="f_qm0"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The punny title is an essential part of the absurdity of the entire mini-phenomenon surrounding Ray (which he prefers to answer to) that is beginning. Harbin is hoping to time the release of the interview with his appearance promoting the book at a corporate but quasi-liberal bookstore called Literati's, which, as fate would have it, is about 3 yards away from the coffee dive in an upscale plaza. Harbin comments that his "semi-biographer... til he left town", a Mr. Jerzy Talbot, had interviewed Harbin and his mentor at this very coffee shop for a magazine that Harbin and his Talbot had both previously contributed to. </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="lpix0"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="asqc0"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Keller asks Harbin to state for the readers the premise of his book, which he claims is 100% true and autobiographical. The book's claims are as follows: James Ray Harbin (b.c. 1963) grew up entranced by comics and cartoons, war movies, and anything to do with kung fu and martial arts. Despite all this fascination with action and violence, Harbin, as his parents before him, was raised as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The boy once enamored of superheroes decided to do what he thought was his heroic calling - to become a missionary and witness overseas for the Mormons. He ends up in South Korea at 18, when he allegedly is swept up in a deadly, days-long riot, where he is attacked and injured by a Korean protester, who he must kill - with his bare hands - in self-defense. Thus begins the transformation from geeky Mormon to lethal assassin.</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="asqc1"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="degu0"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Social order more or less disintegrates (this is c. May 1981) as a result of the riot, and Ray, after a night in a hospital due to his attack, is caught up again in the midst of the unrest. To survive, falls in with purveyors of contraband, mainly cigarettes, whiskey, and – peanut butter! He ends up in jail and is roughed up by the Korean guards. Upon his release, he is approached by Jean-Marc LaSalle, a man in his 50s who first spotted him in the hospital. </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="degu1"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="v2vm"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="degu2"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">LaSalle recruits him as an operative for <i>Pyramid</i>, a completely clandestine branch of international intelligence clearing house REACT. Apparently, LaSalle just trolled about the streets looking for young foreigners to recruit as special agents, or so Graves thought when he read this. Over the next 15 years, by Harbin's account, he was trained to work undercover amongst human predators, infiltrating their sordid operations, and assassinate them with impunity and without mercy or conscience. LaSalle's line was always that, by the verynature of their crimes (explicitly detailed in Harbin's book), these perpetrators had forfeited their civil rights, and, being beyond the reach of conventional law enforcement due to their wealth and total obscurity/ anonymity, they more than deserved the brutal punishment James Ray Harbin and agents like him were trained to administer. </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="n615"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="p-ex"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="vyca"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="ec51"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Harbin details every aspect of his colourful (mostly blood-red) career, from infiltration of Korean prisons to his hand in the "disappearance" of London's most notorious child pornographer; from his seeking out terrorists (who, he maintains, are prime recipients of the vast fortunes reaped from human trafficking)to his role in the celebrated 'Wonderworld' busts, where a huge ring was broken open (Harbin portrays himself in a particularly heroic - if sloppy and reckless - light in this endeavour). </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="l7ds"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="r6cf"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="r6cf0"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="qhls"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Ray's 300 + page tome depicts numerous acts of Martial Arts prowess and bladed weapons brought to bear against "the world's most evil - and elusive - criminals... human predators who evaded conventional law for far too long... but they were dealt grim justice with extreme prejudice by the agents of <i>Pyramid", </i>or so claims Harbin in his screed.</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="nb2m"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="rrrs"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="qx.s"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">After the interview is concluded, Harbin poses at the coffee shop's veranda for several "studly" action pics holding various knives and trying to look cool and menacing. Barry Keller, somewhat skeptical of Ray's claims, decides to do some research. He has 2 days til his deadline. the book signing is in just under 2 weeks. Ray is interviewed the next day by the area's larger, more conservative "mainstream" newspaper, <i>The Daily Occidental</i> (who will thus beat the FSD to the punch by a week and a half in breaking the story. The tone of the writer towards Ray and everything he says is fawning, glowing, and obsequious - and nauseating when the grizzled Leo Rosegrave reads it. "They may as well have fellated him while they were at it", he thinks. </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="qpmh"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="ciw1"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="mj.s"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="sn83"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">This 2nd interview can be depicted in 1-2 panels at most with Graves noting the above, now that the coffee shop scene has given the audience the premise of who and what Ray claims to be. In between this interview and the publication of Keller's piece, Ray does 2 radio reviews - one local; one national. He is quite on a roll, publicity-wise. His radio interviews center on the huge and growing problem of human trafficking and the sexual exploitation of young children. He explains, as he did to Keller, that "the underground kiddie porn industry is used to fund terrorist cells.... there are vast international networks of kidnappers and pornographers who earn billions of dollars working beyond the reach of the law." It was by operating in that grey area that Harbin, LaSalle, and co. were able to administer justice also "beyond the reach of the law". </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="sn831"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="zo1v"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="ajif"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The reaction of the audiences on both shows is amazing. Both shows are swamped with call-ins, praising Harbin as a saviour of the world's lost, forgotten, and exploited, and a "modern Messiah.. to the many victims whose abuses demand the most extreme punishment". </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><br /></b></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="wz7c0"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="zxqj1"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>2 - The Book</b> </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><br /></b></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="zxqj2"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="ajbj"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="wa:q0"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Graves works at the Literati's bookstore. Graves is also a freelance journalist on the side. Graves' employers are making a huge deal out of the book signing that day. Graves, ever cynical, is highly skeptical - for many reasons. First, off, he has known James Ray Harbin for almost three years as one of Graves' customers at Literati's. He has always felt strange vibes; something not quite right. To a man like Leo Rosegrave, a man like James Ray Harbin asking where a particular CD is located feels akin to being shaken down by an oldschool flim-flam man. </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="qzih"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="xddu0"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="zrz8"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="g7gm"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Graves had been hearing for those three years from Ray that Ray's book will be published soon. And... gradually, Ray began making some of the less outrageous claims in his book to Graves. Graves finally encountered Harbin's more outrageous claims when he did a book loan at Literati's the day they received their shipment in preparation for the book signing. He thought he knew what to expect going into the book, but, right from the start, Harbin launches into a scenario taking place in London, apparently in the early to mid 1980s in the book's context, in which Ray "cleaned" (i.e. assassinated - and violently, with his ostensible specialty, a bladed weapon) a man called Horst Ewers, allegedly one of the world's most wanted - and most depraved - child pornographers and traffickers. </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="u1rf"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Harbin's account is written like a lurid spy novel, but filled with details about the hotel the events occured at, lending it a certain verisimilitude. Before reading the book, Graves had been more than cynical; now he was stunned, and felt almost violated for giving this cat the time of day to </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">extol his "secret agent past" as a "crusader against human trafficking". In his mind, from thereafter, Graves never believed a single word uttered by James Ray Harbin.</span><br /><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="z7qk0"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="t.23"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="b0q9"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="ez3b"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">And then Keller's piece saw print. As promised, Ray was the cover image, knife flashing in his hand, but the headline and much of Keller's article built around his interview with Ray cast considerable doubt on Harbin's authenticity. A major point Keller and his editor, John Bandicott (who neither liked nor believed Harbin at all) included in the piece was that they had taken the time and effort to actually check with REACT's Central Euro-Org (headquarters). The organization's Chief Secretariat had no records of a "James Ray Harbin" as having ever been employed by them or by any of their adjunct organizations (intelligence agencies that route info through REACT, which has always maintained it is an "international intelligence clearing house" only, though romantic rumours and fictions portraying it as involved in hands-on espionage and covert ops have persisted for decades). </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="fuf50"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="e-ym"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="bbih"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Ray refuted the organization's claims, stating that it was obvious an agency employing covert agents would never admit to anyone that they did, or who any of those agents were; otherwise it would cease being "covert" and lose its effectiveness. Keller's piece let this point rest, while, two days later, <i>The Occidental</i>admitted they had followed up on the same lead, came up with the same lead, but still took Ray's "seemingly reasonable" argument at face value, and all was well with the corporate-owned rag.</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="hjl-2"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="s9yq"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="s9yq0"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="yvu5"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="zo92"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="i3ku"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Not so <i>The Flicker</i><i>Street Dispatch</i>. Two days before the signing, an enraged Harbin, wife towing behind (as usual), launched into a hysterical tirade at the general manager at the main information desk. Graves was there, and he figured that Ray still saw him as an ally. After his paroxysm, when the GM assured Ray that all would be well at the signing regardless of the press, Ray and wife sidled up to Graves and asked his opinions of the book now that he'd read it. Graves was circumspect, choosing his words carefully. </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="i3ku0"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="i3ku1"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="t6x8"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">He said it was "well written... a nice thriller", but did have one pointed question for Ray that he couldn't resist asking while Ray was high on the fumes of ego trip. "If you really killed 100 criminals - as I'm sure you did, it says so in the books, and you're going public under your real name, but REACT disavows you, aren't you afraid ofyour book being seen as a confession of sorts.. and that if someone is able to follow LaSalle's tracks - which I know will be hard, you make that clear here - then, you could be in some real trouble, especially if the story goes international?" </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="tu0j0"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Ray responded, "Well... well, yeah, that's why I mention in the book how the manner I was trained to perform these duties - " </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="tu0j1"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"Psy Ops is the term", Graves smiled. </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="tu0j2"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">" - how that went against my Christian ideals and that it was an inner struggle. I got out because I couldn't take it anymore." </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="t90x"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"You felt guilty for those murders... assassinations... whathaveyou?" </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="t90x0"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"Well, the acts, the lifestyle of being an operative.." </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="t90x1"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"But did you feel guilty?" </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="t90x2"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"...No. They were all scum who raped children.. and worse, and they all deserved to die. I just happened to be chosen". By God? Graves thought.</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="p737"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="fyp2"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Graves broke off to return to work and said he'd see him at the signing tomorrow. He wanted Ray to still trust him, just for a little while longer, til he could pry open the chinks in Ray's persona - cracks already visible to Leo Rosegrave, if no one else.</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="j7ip0"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The next afternoon, Literati's on Paige Street hosts the book signing - and the madness truly begins... </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="j7ip1"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="qb.y"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="up_."></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="km12"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The book signing draws a large turnout. Graves stands near and watches, feeling sick at seeing the fawning masses trip over themselves to thank Harbin for the "great service" he's doing "for mankind". Ray's typical reply: "I risked my own life and sanity time and again to protect our children... they're, like, our legacy." Ray is thanked by mothers and youth leaders (many right-wing fundamentalists) who had “no idea... of how much of this goes on in the world... it's ghastly and horrid." "I've tried educating my young 'uns [Graves chuckles at that quaint turn of phrase] about the dangers out there and to be careful and vigilant, from your book, I know now these predators are literally waiting around every corner... just waiting to prey on our kids.. to rape and sell them off to some horrid place like Asia, I mean, in Asia.."</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><br /></b></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="gq3j"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="kxfk0"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>3 - The Phenomenon</b> </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="gq3j1"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="pnqy"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="t.xt"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">This is just the beginning of the long stretch of blind adulation and hero worship ladled on James Ray Harbin by the ignorant and thankful (or thankfully ignorant?) masses who begin posting laudatory 5 star reviews of <i>Ray of Hope</i> on the Internet. Many of the internet reviews are anonymous; Graves wonders if they're plants, orchestrated by Harbin himself. Harbin's superstar status would prove relatively short-lived, a year at most, as other forces came into play. </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="i0rh"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="bwms"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="st44"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="hq.2"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="cwek"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">However, things first begin to unravel for the local folk hero when magazines he had freelanced for (and was interviewed by, prior to his book's release) begin calling into question his credibility on their internet talk forums. Harbin, more than once, promised to "appear" on the forums and repudiate the claims made against him, but he never surfaced. According to a prominent adjunct site a magazine that Harbin formerly freelanced for, <i>True Dragon,</i> various episodes in <i>Ray of Hope</i> were dissected and fact checked by an intrepid team devoted to uncovering those who misrepresent themselves in the world of Martial Arts and armed and unarmed combat training and skills. </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="xpf2"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="v.u3"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="k8va"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="b1of"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">One of the first things debunked, in painstaking detail, was Harbin's alleged assassination of alleged child pornographer Horst Ewers (no evidence of whose existence can be uncovered). All of the 'verisimilitude' Graves noted regarding this incident went out of the window, as the layout of rooms, amount of floors, and architectural details did not match the hotel Harbin swore his "cleaning" took place in. And, of course, no long-time employee of this hotel could recall any murders, or even evidence of one - no evidence of blood, a struggle, nothing - in a five year timeframe on either side of the timeframe Harbin roughly outlines at the opening of his book.</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="omia"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="rwpn"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="qvet0"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>True Dragon </i>goes on, over a period of many months, via chatboards (which Harbin declines to appear on, though offered repeatedly), and, finally, in an exhaustive article by writer Michelle Liao, examining Harbin's claims, top to bottom, to debunk the vast majority of those claims. The May 1981 riot in Kwangju City that Ray claimed to have been caught up in did not in fact occur, so his presence there is impossible. He claimed the riot killed hundreds and wounded thousands, and was a retaliatory riot commemorating one a year earlier in Kwangju by students against the military. </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="bds9"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The 1980 riot did occur, though not on the scale described by Ray; its anniversary uprising, quite frankly, did not happen. Liao combs and collects news reports from around the world; eyewitness accounts; and official statements from the South and North Korean governments, and the protesters.</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="hd7x0"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="rwpn0"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="gj1x"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="rg1t"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="no_0"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Ms. Liao, whose cousin, Jun Kim, is among the world's most skilled Martial Artists and an expert in nearly every Asian form of unarmed combat, has, along with True Dragon staff members, has found no credible evidence to support Harbin's claims of a 3<sup>rd</sup> degree Black Belt mastery of Hapkido. The notoriously reclusive Liao Jun Kim did venture an expert opinion, based on materials provided him by his cousin. Based on a cursory read of selected chapters of <i>Ray of Hope</i>, and also upon a photo essay Harbin appeared in in 2001 "demonstrating" his "mastery" of "multiple forms of martial combat", Master Liao concluded that, "This Harbin has not approached the rudiments of true form. He would never survive unarmed in the skirmishes he claims to have been involved in in this book and in your magazine. Unfortunately for the victims of all-too-real human predators, Harbin has crafted an autohagiography, if nothing else... and exploits the pain and suffering of the innocent for his own profit as surely as the 'evil' men he describes. Though I reserve judgment, I sense a sickness in the soul when a man demands fealty to his God from others, and, days later</span></span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">, is dispensing death to his fellow man, no matter how diseased they are..... if indeed such things occurred".</span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="j7.o"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="o0b7"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="hrua"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="lc-6"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">In the 2001 issue of <i>True Dragon </i>alluded to by the Liaos, there did indeed appear a photo shoot of Ray demonstrating certain moves. This accompanied an interview, conducted by Jerzy Talbot, where he first claimed to have been a clandestine REACT agent. He claimed here that in 1998 he led a raid on a Florida hotel room to rescue a missing 7-year-old girl Ray dubbed "Ally" (the real names victims of sexual offenses are prohibited from being used by the press in pending cases). Ally was being sexually abused and slated to be filmed for kiddie porn. Harbin claimed to have killed more than one perpetrator before rescuing Ally, "scooping her up with the very hands I had just used to dispense permanent justice to her victimizers", as he dramatically states in his account of the events. </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="jibf0"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="jtt1"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="jibf1"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="j2bp"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="jtt10"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="qops"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">These events were described extensively in the climactic chapter of <i>Ray of Hope, </i>in which Ray claimed these events were part of the series of nationwide busts on a massive kiddie porn/ human traffic ring code-named 'Wonderworld'. Leo Rosegrave, after reading this magazine and having read <i>Ray of Hope</i>, decided to investigate what really happened with Wonderworld's Florida busts and how (or if) James Ray Harbin was indeed involved. Leo would be mining a richer vein with the <i>True Dragon</i> crowd - seemingly the only healthy skeptics in a country full of rubes desperate for some half-assed hero to "save the children". Here's an idea, thought the grim Leo, "How about start with some decent parenting?"</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="mwmh"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="qops1"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="hyrp"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>True Dragon</i> had gone on to challenge "Dr. Harbin"'s Ph.D., which he claimed to have obtained in Korea. A thorough inquiry by Michelle Liao into degrees issued for the last 30 years at the university Harbin cites in his book, there is no such record. This information was later double checked when Harbin's birth name was revealed. The conclusion was the same: this man has never been a doctor - of any sort.</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="ur..3"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="k8-s"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="n89v"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">One of Graves' favourite magazines that he freelanced for was <i>ONUS Magazine</i>, based out of a small hamlet called Gossingham, not far from Flicker Street. Grave's editor, Sam Pace, a native of Gossingham, loved to publish anything controversial, anything to get the 'status quo' in an uproar - and anything to rankle the sort of rednecks Sam grew up with in Gossingham - the same sort of folk that seemed to be Ray's most ardent and gullible supporters. </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="n89v1"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="n89v2"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="e.ad"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="c6id0"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Sam asked Graves to begin working on a longform piece, using his "ins" with Harbin and with Literati's, and pool it with the mounting doubts about Harbin's authenticity spreading like mad over the web (though most in Flicker St and Gossingham still seemed to take him at face value). Pace wanted <i>ONUS</i> to be the venue to bring down this "teller of tall tales" who, he felt, had an "unnatural obsession with discussing kiddie porn". Pace's prompting crystallized for Graves where his own thoughts were already heading. </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="my_70"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="e.ad0"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="my_71"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="eb3m"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="l7sh"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="my_72"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="nxdg"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="nxdg0"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Graves knew such a piece would be too hot for <i>The Dispatch</i> - despite Bandicott's hatred of Harbin after Ray sent Bandicott a 'letter to the editor' that amounted more to a death threat for daring to question Harbin in any way. Barry Keller was running scared - as usual - so Sam's offer to Graves was irresistable - especially since <i>ONUS, </i>unlike Bandicott's weekly, was a national, not local, publication. Graves decided to focus on all the salient points of the Harbin case, and Sam told him word count was no issue - it could be a two-partner. Sam half-joked that maybe Leo could write a complete book on Harbin down the road, and sell the ancillary rights to retire early. Pace reasoned if Harbin was making an easy living off his chicanery, why not let his old buddy Leo Rosegrave profit from it as well?</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="r4_b0"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="r4_b1"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="rbe8"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="q.-a"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="rbe80"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">One point that puzzled Graves due to its lack of much mention anywhere was - what became of the mysterous Jean-Marc LaSalle, Ray's mentor and inductor into this nightmare world of avenging angel of the world's children? <i>True Dragon</i> had published, in 2002, an interview by Jerzy Talbot with Harbin and a man who claimed to be Jean-Marc LaSalle, supposedly conducted at the same java joint next to where Graves worked. Full circle....</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="q.-a2"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="l3q9"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="ixyo"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The interview was corroborated by the shop's employees and managers; Keller had even mentioned it in passing in his original <i>Dispatch</i>article; for some reason it just didn't register with Graves - not until it was mentioned, again, in passing, in Michelle Liao's comprehensive online piece. Graves asked Michelle who was the interviewer? She said it was a young white guy named Talbot, one of Harbin's fellow freelancers and that they'd become friends through the magazine. This same gentleman collaborated on Harbin's photo-op piece in 2001. At some point, this gentleman was no longer a part of Harbin's growing hype machine as it hurtled towards the book's 2003 publication. </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="e5ak"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="ixyo0"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Talbot, like Ray, had resisted ever appearing on the talkboards online and defending "their" (until they mysteriously fell out) position on Harbin's many claims. Talbot was almost Harbin's publicist; however we regard their association, it ended abrubtly and inexplicably shortly before <i>Ray of Hope</i> hit the streets. Talbot had allegedly moved to Florida and was never seen or heard from again in the Flicker Street area. </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="t4pw0"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="cur9"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="k2on"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="k2on0"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">But what of LaSalle? Michelle claimed the rumour (perpetuated by Ray himself) was that LaSalle was dead, and, in patented James Ray Harbin style, it was a murder rife with drama. Leo had been corresponding with a young man called Henri Maturin, who'd done some intensive research for Michelle Liao on her piece. Graves asked Henri to check the French newspaper "morgues" for any reports of the murder (or death at all) of Jean-Marc LaSalle. As fate - or luck, in Harbin's case - would have it, LaSalle is indeed no longer alive to be interviewed. </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="mlws"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="urox"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="upia"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="c3ov"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Henri pointed Graves in the right direction: shortly before their falling out (and the book launch), the elusive Mr. Talbot had submitted this report to <i>True Dragon</i>: "In June 2003, LaSalle and Harbin flew to France for a meeting with US and European officials. LaSalle agreed to meet with American intelligence officials on June 6, 2003 in order to exchange certain 'sensitive' documents in exchange for protection. The night before this exchange was to take place - June 5, 2003 - four officers broke into the hotel room in which Harbin and LaSalle were staying. Thee officers apparently attempted to steal the documents and soon a melee broke out. </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="vu5w"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="j587"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="j5870"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="kykz"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="ajcp"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">During the struggle, three of the four attackers were slain and the fourth escaped. "Harbin was left with a dislocated left knee and several cracked ribs. He crawled over to the lifeless body of his longtime mentor and friend, 67 year old Jean-Marc LaSalle. Ray called a Captain Luc Herzog [supposedly a high-ranking Pyramid liaison in France]. Harbin said he needed a team of washer/ dryers [those that clean up after the 'cleaning' apparently]. Herzog dispatched such a group and rushed Harbin to the hospital. The next day, the meeting that had caused such calamity beforehand did indeed go down - Herzog personally drove Ray to the meeting place. Harbin thus gained immunity and protection due to the information he supplied - and lost his best friend over. The documents have been hidden across three continents as ultimate insurance". Graves thinks, if this did really happen, the documents themselves were probably kiddie porn...</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="os6t"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="fb10"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="nz0t"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Talbot wrote an article about REACT for a leftist political magazine in late 2003 (the last evidence he still lives after the move to Florida) that "three [not 4] unknown attackers waylaid them in Marseilles." Graves follows the logical deduction that LaSalle was killed on, or about, June 6, 2003, in Marseilles, France. However, Henri Maturin, going over and above for True Dragon (or Michelle), made the following statements under oath and signed the affadavit in court:</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="ii_k"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="ii_k0"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="gdxf"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="qz1f"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="b5.1"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"There are no reports of, or evidence of, any law enforcement officer being killed in Marseille on these dates. Also, no mention of any shootouts involving REACT operatives or Marseille police on these dates in Marseilles. I reviewed all area newpapers between June 1 and June 10 of 2003 for any mention of the death of a Jean-Marc LaSalle, or any occurrences of violence in any hotel room during this time frame. I found no record whatsoever of any corresponding event in all of Marseilles during those 10 days, and no record of a Jean-Marc LaSalle being there, alive or dead, during those times".</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="jzwp0"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="qb:i"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="q8.t"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">This kid's good, thought Graves. So, all evidence indicates LaSalle didn't die in Marseilles as claimed by Harbin and "reported" by Talbot (his parting gift to Ray?). Of course, Talbot was the only one, outside of Harbin himself, in this whole state, that could say they met LaSalle (or a man calling himself that) in person - during that long ago coffee shop interview. Graves has shaken</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="q8.t0"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="q8.t1"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="zw_7"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">down everyone at the coffee shop, his work, anyone who frequents that area - no one seems to recall a sit-down between Harbin, Talbot, and an older, sophisticated gentlemen. Everyone knows Harbin practically lives at that cafe. Some even recall a guy fitting Talbot's decription... but alas, no Jean-Marc.</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="a-0i0"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="c3ew"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Graves then launched into an extensively researched piece debunking Ray's Wonderworld story. Leo believed the ultimate pivot on which Ray's dupicity spun lie his book's climactic chapter due to the sheer scope of its treatment of the 'Wonderworld' busts; these were not "top secret" spy missions (though govt agents took part in them), but a nationally coordinated bust conducted by local law enforcement (with federal backup) in multiple cities over a few days throughout America, and with extensive media scrutiny. </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="s0yb"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="mxeg"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Harbin had not indicated anywhere in his book prior to his 'Wonderworld' chapter that he involved or even aware of its planning - very odd considering he painted himself as the ultimate crusader in this very kind of situation. But make no mistake, once he inserts himself into the action, there's no amount of hoary thriller cliches portraying him as the hero of children everywhere that he so pathetically, in Leo's view, is not - nor ever was. </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="ivne"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="ta-w"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="s0qt"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="zuyg"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="zuyg0"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Graves' view is that by inserting himself into such a high profile, nationwide sting operation as Wonderworld, Ray is almost crying out to be revealed as a fraud. Almost. In Harbin's account, the raid went down on September 3, 1998, in "a town in Florida". Harbin actually arrived in this nameless town weeks earlier, accompanied REACT operatives and local law enforcement to stake out suspects in a hotel as part of Wonderworld raids - waiting to coordinate the arrests on an international scale. This should have been right up Ray's alley, thinks Graves - but no, he botched it in the story as in its telling.. but still managed to emerge a superhero in his account.</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="s2jq"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="zab8"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="lpix5"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The suspects were four Korean and three Thai males. On September 3, Harbin was waiting in their "monitoring station" (which he does not describe any further) with 'behavioural scientist' Bryn Deerfield, M.D. when the surveillance equipment that Harbin and co. had apparently placed in the suspects' suite began picking up activity that indicated the group had a captive, a seven year old named "Ally", and were beginning to sexually abuse her, intending to film and/ or photograph their activities. </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="k4o:"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="m1bz"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="mngs"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="h9lp"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="t2rm"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="t2rm0"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="xzqw"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Harbin, against orders to hold back, ran heroically to the suite, carelessly leaving his firearm behind. He forced the lock with a card and was nearly shot by the lookout man, but he swiftly stabbed him in the jugular with a Ka-Bar knife. Two local deputies entered the room quickly after Harbin and fatally shot the two remaining men in the living room, who had drawn firearms. Ray sped to the bedroom, where he found a Thai man manning a camera tripod - apparently so entranced by photographing "Ally" that he was oblivious to the gunshots he must've heard; Harbin's explanation later was that "very loud techno music was playing in the room". Is this what led Ray in the correct direction of the bedroom? thought Graves. A very sloppy account, in his opinion.</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="xzqw1"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="s0xp"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="sdp5"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Two of the Koreans were lying on the bed with the naked victim. According to Ray, the camera man swung his tripod at Ray's head as a makeshift weapon, but Ray produced a telescoping baton, with which he shattered the man's left knee, then, as the camera man lost his balance, Ray brought down the end of the tripod, camera attached, on his skull, cracking it and killing him. </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="sdp50"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="wrq1"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="wrq11"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="ufk5"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A Korean smashed a window, and as he attempted to escape, Ray pushed down the man's neck with one of his Hapkido moves until the Korean's throat was slit completely open (Ray has a thing with Koreans, Graves thought). Then Harbin ministered to "Ally", who was taken to the nearest hospital by Emergency Medical Services, where the girl's family was apparently there waiting for her. Who called them is undisclosed. </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="rfil"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Harbin was reprimanded by REACT for his reckless actions, but "Ally"'s father "pulled some strings" (what type of strings this man could pull with a group like Pyramid that he wouldn't have known conclusively even existed until that day is not disclosed in Harbin's account), and not only</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="dwfv"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">was Harbin forgiven all, but the two trigger-happy deputies that followed his lead were as well. </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="wrq12"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="hnfb"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="t_yg"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="t_yg1"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="t_yg0"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Harbin's old "semi-biographer", Jerzy Talbot, as noted earlier, recounted a truncated version of these events for the 2001 <i>True Dragon </i>piece. There he says four of the seven pornographers died that day; this does not jibe with the above account from <i>Rayof Hope, </i>where apparently five were slain. Talbot claimed in his original article that the 4 kills were corroborated by New Orleans Police Officer Ed Letterier, who was allegedly present at the incident. Graves decides to track down this Leterrier, by Talbot's account a cocky oldschool cop from Bywater with a Cajun father and a redneck temper. </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="yi_:"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="cb5r"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Talbot quotes Letterier thusly: "Yeah, I met these Pyramid fuckers, alright? I worked Wonderworld from August to September '98, and I met two of these clowns. One was some show-off punk, James Earl Ray or some shit, and the other was some headshrinker bitch, Brenda or somethin'." </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="d450"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"James Ray Harbin - and Bryn Deerfield, sir?"</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="d4500"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="gmm:"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="v8.7"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="v8.70"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"I guess so, I'm still tryin' to wipe their stench of me. We assumed they were CIA. We were way off. So, anyway, the fuckin' raid went down. These fuckers, they're strictly take no prisoners. They're not legit law enforcement - they're assassins. Think they're above the goddamned law - well, they ain't. Between the closet case 'superhero' and the psychobabble bitch, I hope I never see or hear about their crooked "Org" the rest 'a' my natural life. Jesus. There is still due process, ain't there? Fuck."</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="lh6q"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="en6j"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="nu1z"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="qci:"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="qci:0"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Talbot claimed he interviewed Letterier on June 6, 2001 and descibed him as active, not retired, on the force. Graves called the New Orleans PD in February 2005 and was told there was no police officer named Edward Leterrier currently employed by them, full-time, part-time, or even on reserve. Further checking with their Personnel Offices, Graves found he could not obtain the names of retirees, so Leterrier could have retired between June 2001 and February 2005. But what was a New Orleans police officer out of Bywater doing in the unnamed "small town in Florida" where the raid allegedly happened when the officer had no connection to REACT, and was not a member of local law enforcement in Florida?</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-size: x-small;">Leterrier was likely yet another colourful product of Harbin's imagination – and his derogatory comments about Ray, Graves felt, were examples of disinformation – Harbin having at least someone in his book “mistakenly” “misunderstanding” his crusade.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="ozcg0"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="ozcg1"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="kuyc"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="o2rp"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="luuw"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="bstb"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="ikcf"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">After weeks of exhaustive news searches and online research, Graves found only two Wonderworld raids in Florida during August or September 1998. Local law enforcement, working in tandem with Customs Agents, seized hundreds of images of child pornography from the computer of a man who lived just outside Jacksonville FL. However, no shooting, no arrests. Just the carrying out of a search warrant and the seizure of the offensive materials. This was on September 4, 1998, and was reported in the local media. If police (or anyone working with local authorities) had killed four (or five, depending on the account) men during a daytime raid, it could not have been kept from all media altogether. Graves follows every possible lead, and all that emerges is that on September 3, 1998 - the day of the events Harbin and Talbot describe - a Miami home is raided, and police seize, as they did the next day in Jacksonville, a home computer, its hard drive filled with images of child pornography.</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="c1hb0"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="j4if"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="slek"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">In the media, Miami and Jacksonville are mentioned as among the American and international locations where the coordinated operation on Wonderworld took place. Wonderworld was essentially a worldwide computer file sharing operation devoted to child pornography. Graves reads every account of a Wonderworld bust in the world. No government involvement, no shoot-outs, no deaths, no dubious heroics. As far as can be assessed, Wonderworld was a 'club' devoted to disseminating - not (as in the case of the tripod-wielding arch-villain) manufacturing - the product. </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="zsic0"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="vbbd"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Graves followed up to see if there were any police raids in Florida between August 30 and September 5, 1998 that resulted in any fatalities. Then he asked officers in Jacksonville if any </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">raids connected to Wonderworld resulted in fatalities. The police department's spokesperson offered a flat, unequivocal "no". Leo did find one newspaper account of the seized computer porn just outside Jacksonville on the September 4. His final visit was to speak with an Officer Janssen of the Miami City Police who had not only not heard of any such incident in Florida in 1998, but in order to be absolutely sure, one would need to provide a suspect's or victim's name, date of birth, and/ or social security number. None of which Harbin so helpfully provided, right along with "a small town in Florida".</span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="n..v0"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="c533"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="b76o"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">There were no reports in the media of an EMS vehicle ferrying a seven year to a "small town" hospital. No trigger-happy deputies chastised, then commended. No reports of four - or five - dead Koreans and Thai at any coroners' offices. By this time Leo Rosegrave was sick of Florida - the visit there, reading about it, the red tape, talking to the locals and cops, the weather, all of it. But, it was, to him, ultimately to a good end. In his view, this entire incident - as so many in Ray of Hope - was entirely fabricated. And the refusal - despite countless opportunities to do so - of Harbin or Talbot to answer their critics online and elsewhere - places all of Harbin's claims in grave doubt.</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="ap9m"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="j28n"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Even as Harbin's fervent legion of wild-eyed supporters leapt to his defense against any who'd question their dubious hero, Harbin's wife left him, apparently beginning to believe him a fake as well. He talked her back within weeks, but they both remained unemployed (she hadn't worked since they got married and he was laid off in his job as telephone computer tech support around the time the book was published). Even as Graves was preparing his <i>ONUS</i> piece, he ended up in Harbin's orbit one last time. </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="hlcv"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="l33b"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="l33b0"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="l33b1"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Two of Graves' fellow employees at the bookstore caught Harbin, usually abetted by his returned wife, trying to scam by bringing back books for refunds - books that appeared stolen from other shops. He also attempted switching price tags on items and began carrying a large black bag which occasionally set off the store's electronic alarm (Ray, of course, would just keep on walking). </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="o2a90"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="ip7j"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="ip7j1"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">One of Grave's co-workers, an affable artist named Ren Kuttner, was a regular at the coffee shop next door; his ex-fiancee Amelia Coxsone still worked there. Harbin was also considered a living legend, folk hero, sex symbol, ad nauseum at this shop. Everyone there militantly defended him, and were rabid attack dogs against his detractors. Much as this sickened Ren, he kept coming here on his breaks because, simply put, he was still in love with the head barrista. In a weak moment, Ren mentioned to her that Ray'd been attempting to steal and scam in the store, and it looking liked he'd be barred from the store (they long ago sent every unsold copy of his book back to the publisher). Amelia humored her ex, but then reported the conversation to Ray. </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="gk3k0"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="e8so"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="e8so0"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="fsa2"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">An hour later, in plain sight of Graves, Harbin and his wife approached Kuttner. Harbin boldly threatened to murder Kuttner for his slander, screaming, "No one - no... one.. slanders the good name of James Ray Harbin" (a line of unbelieveable irony, Graves would discover). Harbin was on a rampage, and finally, he was removed and barred from ever returning to Literati's. When asked if Ren wished to press charges for harassment, death threats, and stalking, Kuttner begged off, finding discretion the best part of valor - and vowing never to trust the girl he once intended to marry for the rest of his natural life. </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="fsa21"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="cp0k"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Following this drama, Harbin's wife split again. Word of mouth was hurting the book, largely due to the online debunkers. He may've still been the Second Coming to a few trendy over-pierced barristas, but weren't going to be paying his rent. So Harbin hustled like a madman for new interviews -print, TV, or radio - and, most potentially lucratively, gigs speaking on the lecture circuit of foundations and universities as an authority on the things he was speaking out against in his book. This may've been his single biggest mistake. </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><br /></b></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="jdbn"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="ll720"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>4 - The Fallout</b> </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="sn0l"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">On January 23, 2006, In Colorado, Harbin had been booked for a high-paying speaking gig. Just</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">before he was to appear, a warrant for his arrest was executed. At this point, the truth about this small-time self-spawned legend was no longer the province of sceptics, journalists, martial arts experts, and internet bloggers. It was now a matter for local and federal the law - the kind of law Harbin sneers at and blames again and again in his book as a root cause of "nothing being done .... for the children".</span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="u-xg"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="mp8p"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="vqz5"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="lp1q"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="ebvf"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Harbin's first court appearance in Colorado was scheduled for February 2, 2006; his bond was set at $ 5,000.00. But as far back as 2004 REACT had been describing Harbin's history as pure fiction. Working closely with REACT's Central EuroOrg (including their Chief Secretariat in Auvergne, France - who's been on record since 2003 declaiming Harbin's bona-fides), and other REACT member countries, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation found Harbin's credentials bogus and have classed his numerous attempts to profit from his masquerade as federal felonies. His charges include, but are not limited to, criminal impersonation of a federal agent (a severe felony), fraud, computer crime, and attempted theft. </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="ihs96"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="sank"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="sank0"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="nwfk"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="umfa"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Once arrested, the Colorado police began unraveling the truth behind the mostly self-manufactured mythology of James Ray Harbin, covert agent of REACT and tireless advocate for and defender to the death of exploited, abused, and molested children. First off, his real (birth) name is Dwayne Ray Gilley. He legally changed his name to James Ray Harbin in Seattle, WA in 1990. Some have said James Harbin was the star of a minor string of spy thrillers from the 1960s - and, sure enough, an eBay search yields a dealer's page specializing in latter-day pulps, or "aggressor" fiction. Actually, the James Harbin series is called 'The Aggressor'. The fictional Harbin is never depicted as liberating Asian children from kiddie porn and snuff film rings, however (elements that do figure prominently in <i>Ray of Hope</i>).</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="ed_x"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="wz8m"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="unr40"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="wqz5"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The CBI, with assist from REACT, set about building their case against Harbin, who remained in jail for sometime with no one to come forward to pay his bond (his wife had left him twice since his credibility became damaged; the last time for good, well before his engagements in Colorado). The meticulous research conducted in the last year and a half by <i>True Dragon </i>and their adjunct website, provided a wealth of information debunking almost every incident in Harbin's book and his subsequent claims in his paid appearances. And Leo Rosegrave was not far behind, keeping up as best he could with this process, awaiting the collation of data and the final verdict, at which time the plan he and Sam had hatched was a "final interview". </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="v8460"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="q_bs"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="mo_0"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="mo_00"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">REACT reiterated their much earlier statements of having no records of a James Ray Harbin having ever been associated with any of their divisions; this time they included the name 'Dwayne Ray Gilley' as part of their statement, now that Ray's birth name was public. REACT disavowed any knowledge of or dealings with Gilley, and, once again, denied the existence of Pyramid, or that they were in any way active such fields of covert operations or espionage. </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="qr4o"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="rc4b"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="q7rz"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="q7rz0"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The CBI and REACT say the chronology given in the book <i>Ray of Hope</i> by the&nbsp;man born Dwayne Ray Gilley is patently false. The following is what they managed to piece together as factual - some of which was uncovered by Leo Rosegrave and Michelle Liao since 2003. Dwayne Ray Gilley was born in Seattle WA on April 6, 1963. A CBI investigator was able to track down and interview Harbin's first wife, Suzy Stroupe. Here were his findings, which Ms. Stroupe would later reiterate under oath:</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="v9bj0"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Suzanne Stroupe was born in Gossingham in 1962 and met Dwayne Gilley at Brigham Young University (he was actually a Mormon). They wed in 1984. hey had one child together in 1989. The couple changed their last names from Gilley to Harbin in Seattle WA in 1990. Dwayne changed his first name to James as well, to fully reflect why they made the name change - they'd selected Harbin because of the character James Harbin in the pulp novel series 'The Aggressor'.</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="tlwm6"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="db0q"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">In 1991 the couple separated; Stroupe moved to Gossingham, where most of her family hailed from. Harbin told Suzy that he was moving to Korea to teach English. Three months later, Harbin surprisingly emerged in Gossingham, where he remained near his wife and daughter until 1995</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="wk45"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">when they divorced. From 1995 to the present Harbin has kept in close contact with his child and ex-wife, and he currently resides in Flicker Street. Ms. Stroupe told the investigator that Harbin "has a fascination with comic books, action heroes, heroes in cartoons and especially in old pulp novels. He regularly attends comic book conventions." </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="h-8-"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="m6nw"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="a85m"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="vsy1"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="vsy10"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Stroupe stated her view to the CBI investigator that "in my opinion it would be completely impossible for Dway - James, whatever, to have been a covert agent or assassin - these things he claims to be - and a graduate of the university in Korea where he claims to have gotten a Ph.D. without my knowledge. I never saw any Ph.D. Dwayne and I were practically inseparable for most of our relationship. My ex-husband is a habitual, pathological liar and I asked him many times to get some sort of psychological help to help him deal with reality. He refused, and that's essentially what led to our divorce". </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="lk1g"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="vklp"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="ferf"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Stroupe went on: "Once, he told me his father had passed away and that he needed to make funeral arrangements. I called my mother-in-law to offer condolences, and found that Mr. Gilley was alive and perfectly fine! It was just crazy". Stroupe also wished it pointed out for the record that the scar he allegedly acquired as a result of being stabbed in the riot in Kwangju (the one that never actually occurred), was actually the result of a kidney operation. </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="ytgq0"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="tgpr"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="x48z"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">With Harbin's personal mythology effectively destroyed, he's accusing the CBI of being a tool of REACT and his ex-wife of herself being a perpetual liar, and bitter over his remarriage. Sam Pace publishes Graves' article and Sam asks Leo if he'll do the exclusive interview with Ray that they'd discussed – as the ultimate follow-up. Graves heads to Colorado...</span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="kv_32"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="ihs98"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>5 - The Final Interview</b></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="a2cb"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="ca.e"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="ig-9"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="w0:n"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Leo comes to see Ray at the jail where he's being held before his final judgment. No one would come forward to pay the $ 5,000. So much for his devoted following, thinks Graves. Ray acquiesces to a "final" interview after pleading guilty and saying very little to explain himself in court - and saying nothing to the press. Whether he will 'come clean' or not, Graves doesn't know - or believe that it'll happen. His intention is to call out Ray, to make him squirm, to gain enough insight by reading between the now-debunked lines, to construct a story - a psychological snapshot of what really drives Dwayne Ray Gilley. </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="wrex0"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="g00-"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="n4es"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Beyond the need for attention, ego-aggrandizement, the need to be regarded as a hero like those of his comics, cartoons, and pulps - beyond a calculating, years-long and convoluted bit of grifting to enrich himself financially; and far, far beyond what he still claims is the good he's really done. What is this good, that he claims is more important than his own fate and whether what he says is truth or lie? It's to draw attention to, and, hence, aid "the plight of the exploited and degraded children of the world". And it is upon this justification for all he's done that Ray clings - and it is that fragile rationale that Graves hopes to use against Ray, to undo and expose his true sickness once and for all.</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="n2wc"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">This section runs on pure dialogue. Without scripting the entire section, here are some highlights (not necessarily in order) and the resolution:</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="binm0"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="gw_1"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="gw_10"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="v7oj"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Leo leans in close to Ray. (Leo's look and manner here evokes a very intense grizzled Nick Nolte [circa <i>Clean </i>and <i>Hulk</i> look - but younger]) "Jean-Marc LaSalle doesn't really exist... does he? He.. never really existed, did he Ray?" (flips back to more jovial Graves as he stands up.) </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="v7oj0"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Harbin: "I didn't like what you wrote in that magazine".</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="xi9-"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Graves: "What? I mean, what in particular? I'm sure there was a lot in there you could've found objectionable".</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="xi9-0"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Harbin: "That sick description of my book".</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="pdcd"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="piwn"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="xl6y"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Graves (pulls out the <i>ONUS </i>issue, flips through, and his eyes settle on this quote, which he reads aloud to Ray): "<i>Ray of Hope</i>... how to take such a screed? A vigilante's wet dream... or a cry for</span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-size: x-small;">help from a closeted pedophile?"</span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="y6:d"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">H: "Yes. (angry) Why... how could you write something like that after everything I've done for exploited children?"</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="niwl"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="mxax"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="w0b8"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">G: "Do what? Exploit them further? Make a quick book off of fabricated suffering when the real deal's out there, festering? How are you helping, Ray? Did you read Liao Jun Kim's quote? I've met him, you know - a Zen Buddhist, by the way - and he just nailed it. Not to hurt you, or stymie your book sales - but because he was right. He read you. The whole thing about you.."</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="dq8u"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">H: (getting very enraged)</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="dq8u0"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="r.50"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="nke."></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="nke.0"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">G: "Easy, big boy. The whole thing is... yes, the hook is sexually exploited children, kiddie porn, human trafficking, the whole sordid enchilada... you know - of course you do - it turns on people, Ray. Certain types of people. Why? We could theorize endlessly, and "behavioural psychologists" do - like Bryn Deerfield, who, by the way, I did find and her story is the Wonderworld deal is pure bunk – she wasn't there, and she's never met you.. oh yeah, and she may sue you for - "</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="nke.1"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">H: (furious) "Did you have a point to make before I smash your head into this table?"</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="vtif"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="m..u"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="m..u0"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">G: "With Crane, Tiger, Monkey, whatcha got for me? Yes, I do have a point, and then I'll leave. And I brought you a present here in my bag. Some stuff I printed off the Internet. Makes me lose my lunch even catching it out of the corner of my eye, but maybe it'll help alleviate your loneliness while you await the sentence. And maybe you'll get something out of it before you scramble to destroy it when you hear a guard coming..."</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="repu"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">H: : "What the fuck???"</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="eb:d0"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="eb:d1"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">G: (lays down five pages of child pornography on the table in front of Harbin) "Here you go, Dwayne Ray Gilley - you know, you told the truth about one - just one, apparently - thing - "</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="k1j4"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">H: "Get this filth - "</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="k1j40"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="huyv"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="b11r"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">G: " - the plight of the exploited and degraded children of the world..." (turns to leave) ".... you do care about their plight. You love it, you wallow in it, you jerk off to the suffering.... well...". Graves turns, opening the door, says, "Enjoy it while you can, you sick fuck. Pretty soon, your final secret won't be a secret anymore... Best of luck".</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="b11r1"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="e6ef"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="csc1"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="csc10"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="r6nu"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Then Graves leaves. Harbin is enraged. He wants to smash that pathetic bastard. His heart races.... he looks down at the images Graves left behind, and somewhere in his bizarre consciousness flits the thought, <i>there are other ways to calm down .... to relieve all this stress...</i></span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="r6nu1"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">He reaches down, under the table, between his legs....</span></span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-size: x-small;"><b>[possible ending]</b></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-size: x-small;"><b>06-17-08</b></span></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: #351c75;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="f-tw1"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="t.232"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="lccs"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="lccs0"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="tei0"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="f-tw4"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="f-tw2"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="zbp-"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="y3oj0"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="y3oj"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="y8kd0"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="i0m6"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="jpm_"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="qw3s1"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="qw3s0"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="ktwa1"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="ktwa0"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="ktwa"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="f-tw6"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="m.y90"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="zwww0"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="yj7g0"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3852574899003991711" name="yj7g"></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Leo Rosegrave aka Graves, James Ray Harbin aka Dwayne Ray Gilley, Flicker Street, </b><i><b>The Flicker Street Dispatch</b></i><b>, </b><i><b>The Daily Occidental</b></i><b>, </b><i><b>ONUS Magazine</b></i><b>, Sam Pace, Michelle Liao, Jun Kim Liao, Suzy Stroupe Gilley, Gossingham, Jerzy Talbot, Jean-Marc LaSalle, REACT, REACT EuroOrg, REACT: Pyramid, Paige Street, Ren Kuttner, Amelia Coxsone, Barry Keller, Horst Ewers, John Bandicott, Luc Herzog, Edward Letterier, Henri Maturin, Bryn Deerfield, Officer Janssen, Literati's, </b><i><b>Ray of Hope: The Covert Missions of a Crusader Against Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking, True Dragon, </b></i><b>and all related images and story elements were created by Henry Covert 1983-2008 and are all Copyright 2015 George Henry Smathers, Jr.</b></span></span></span>Henry Coverthttps://plus.google.com/103990383640616339933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3852574899003991711.post-61384154279522200882015-04-24T13:57:00.002-07:002015-04-24T14:15:53.853-07:00Henry Covert's 555 Films That Freak Me Out - 2015<span style="background-color: #f7f0e9; color: #3d85c6; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Yet again.... 555 films, honed down from a massive list of 750 all-time favourites. After many changes from previous such lists, and much brain-wracking, these films, as close to being in order as possible, indeed represent those movies I absolutely rate the highest in my personal pantheon. As always, all are indelibly etched onto my brainpan - regardless of genre, length, or what some might deem "good taste".</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">1. 2046 (Wong Kar-wai, 2004)<b><br /></b>2. Dawn of the Dead (George Romero, 1978)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>3. X-Men (Bryan Singer, 2000)<b><br /></b>4. Oldboy (Park chan-wook, 2003)<b><br /></b>5. Natural Born Killers (Oliver Stone, 1994)<b><br /></b>6. Superfly (Gordon Parks Jr., 1972)<b><br /></b>7. Django (Sergio Corbucci, 1966)<b><br /></b>8. Tristana (Luis Bunuel, 1970)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>9. Orpheus (Jean Cocteau, 1950)<b><br /></b>10. Sweet Movie (Dusan Makavejev, 1974)<br /><b><br /></b>11. The Great Silence (Sergio Corbucci, 1968)<b><br /></b>12. The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (Peter Greenaway, 1989)<b><br /></b>13. Last Tango in Paris (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1972)<b><br /></b>14. Possession (Andrzej Zulawski, 1981)<b><br /></b>15. Scorpio Rising (Kenneth Anger, 1964)<b><br /></b>16. Night of the Living Dead (George Romero, 1968)<b><br /></b>17. Judex (Louis Feuillade, 1917)<b><br /></b>18. Cutter's Way (Ivan Passer, 1981)<b><br /></b>19. Bad Timing (Nicolas Roeg, 1980)<b><br /></b>20. Cannibal Apocalypse (Antonio Margheriti, 1980)<b><br /></b>21. The Idiot (Akira Kurosawa, 1951)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>22. The Killer (John Woo, 1989)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">23. The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1968)<b><br /></b>24. Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (Russ Meyer, 1970)<b><br /></b>25. Chasing Amy (Kevin Smith, 1997)<br /><b><br /></b>26. Vivre sa Vie (Jean-Luc Godard, 1962)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">27. Holy Mountain (Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1973)<b><br /></b>28. X2: X-Men United (Bryan Singer, 2003)<b><br /></b>29. Ganja &amp; Hess (Bill Gunn, 1973)<b><br /></b>30. Drugstore Cowboy (Gus van Sant, 1989)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>31. Planet of the Apes (Franklin J. Schaffner, 1968)<b><br /></b>32. El Topo (Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1970)<b><br /></b>33. Aguirre: The Wrath of God (Werner Herzog, 1972)<b><br /></b>34. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Tobe Hooper, 1974)<b><br /></b>35. Spider-Man (Sam Raimi, 2002)<b><br /></b>36. The Crying Game (Neil Jordan, 1992)<b><br /></b>37. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (David Lynch (1992)<b><br /></b>38. Blue Collar (Paul Schrader, 1978)<b><br /></b>39. Messiah of Evil (Willard Huych, 1973)<b><br /></b>40. Querelle (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1982)<b><br /></b>41. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1974)<b><br /></b>42. Across 110<sup>th</sup>&nbsp;Street (Barry Shear, 1972)<b><br /></b>43. Dead Ringers (David Cronenberg, 1988)<b><br /></b>44. Mask (Peter Bogdanovich, 1985)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>45. Taxi Driver (Martin Scorcese, 1976)<b><br /></b>46. The Spook Who Sat by the Door (Ivan Dixon, 1973)<b><br /></b>47. Heavy Traffic (Ralph Bakshi, 1973)<b><br /></b>48. The Face of Another (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1966)<b><br /></b>49. The Fly (David Cronenberg, (1986)<b><br /></b>50. The Dead Zone (David Cronenberg, 1983)<b><br /> </b></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">51. Hulk (Ang Lee, 2003)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">52. A Housekeeper (Claude Berri, 2002)<b><br /></b>53. Performance (Nicolas Roeg and Donald Cammell, 1970)<b><br /></b>54. Thief (Michael Mann, 1981)<b><br /></b>55. The Piano (Jane Campion, 1993)<b><br /></b>56. Candyman (Bernard Rose, 1992)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>57. Black Jesus (Valerio Zurlini, 1968)<b><br /></b>58. Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (J. Lee Thompson, 1972)<b><br /></b>59. The Best Years of Our Lives (William Wyler, 1946)<b><br /></b>60. The Beyond (Lucio Fulci, 1981)<b><br /></b>61. 1984 (Michael Radford, 1984)<b><br /></b>62. Lolita (Stanley Kubrick, 1962)<b><br /></b>63. Peeping Tom (Michael Powell, 1960)<b><br /></b>64. Alucarda (Juan Lopez Moctezuma, 1977)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>65. Fritz the Cat (Ralph Bakshi, 1972)<b><br /></b>66. Truck Turner (Jonathan Kaplan, 1974)<b><br /></b>67. Spider-Man 2 (Sam Raimi, 2004)<b><br /></b>68. Secretary (Steven Shainberg, 2002)<b><br /></b>69. The Fountain (Darren Aaronofsky, 2006)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>70. The Last Man on Earth (Ubaldo Ragona, 1964)<b><br /></b>71. Soylent Green (Richard Fleischer, 1973)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">72. The Cat O'Nine Tails (Dario Argento, 1971)<b><br /></b>73. WR: Mysteries of the Organism (Dusan Makavejev, 1971)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>74. Hit Man (George Armitage, 1972)<b><br /></b>75. Lord Love a Duck (George Axelrod, 1966)&nbsp;<b><br /></b></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">76. Ms. 45 (Abel Ferrara, 1981)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">77. Heat (Michael Mann, 1995)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>78. Day of the Dead (George Romero,1985) <b><br /></b>79. The Day the Earth Stood Still (Robert Wise, 1951)<b><br /></b>80. Black Caesar (Larry Cohen, 1973)<b><br /></b>81. Hell Up in Harlem (Larry Cohen, 1973)<b><br /></b>82. Chungking Express (Wong Kar-wai, 1994)<b><br /></b>83. In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-wai, 2000)<b><br /></b>84. Thriller – A Cruel Picture (Bo Arne Vibenius, 1973)<b><br /></b>85. Siegfried (Fritz Lang, 1924)<b><br /></b>86. Kriemhild's Revenge (Fritz Lang, 1924)<b><br /></b>87. Hard Boiled (John Woo, 1992)<b><br /></b>88. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Jim Sharman, 1975)<b><br /></b>89. Faster Pussycat... Kill! Kill! (Russ Meyer, 1965)<b><br /></b>90. INLAND EMPIRE (David Lynch, 2006)<b><br /></b>91. The Elephant Man (David Lynch, 1980)<b><br /></b>92. Lady Snowblood (Toshiya Fujita, 1973)<b><br /></b>93. Fitzcarraldo (Werner Herzog, 1982)<b><br /></b>94. Welcome Home Brother Charles (Jamaa Fanaka, 1975)<b><br /></b>95. Alphaville (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965)<b><br /></b>96. Ghost World (Terry Zwigoff, 2001)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>97. The Duellists (Ridley Scott, 1977)<b><br /></b>98. Network (Sidney Lumet, 1976)<b><br /></b>99. Contempt (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963)<b><br /></b>100. The Devil in Miss Jones (Gerard Damiano, 1973)<br /><b><br /></b>101. Bully (Larry Clark, 2001)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">102. Flash Gordon (Mike Hodges, 1980)<b><br /></b>103. Keoma (Enzo Castellari, 1976)<b><br /></b>104. The Big Bird Cage (Jack Hill, 1972)<b><br /></b>105. Foxy Brown (Jack Hill, 1974)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">106. The World of Suzie Wong (Richard Quine, 1960)<b><br /></b>107. Freeway (Matthew Bright, 1996)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>108. Deadbeat at Dawn (Jim Van Bebber, 1988)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>109. Butterfly &amp; Sword (Michael Mak, 1993)<b><br /></b>110. Minnie and Moskowitz (John Cassavettes, 1971)<b><br /></b>111. Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982)<b><br /></b>112. Scarface (Brian DePalma, 1983)<b><br /></b>113. The Mack (Michael Campus, 1973)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>114. Four of the Apocalypse (Lucio Fulci, 1975)<b><br /></b>115. Belle du Jour (Luis Bunuel, 1967)<b><br /></b>116. Immortal (ad vitam) (Enki Bilal, 2004)<b><br /></b>117. Morvern Callar (Lynne Ramsey, 2002)<b><br /></b>118. American Movie (Chris Smith, 1999)<b><br /></b>119. Brotherhood of the Wolf (Christophe Gans, 2001)<b><br /></b>120. Martin (George A Romero, 1976)<b><br /></b>121. Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960)<b><br /></b>122. Sid and Nancy (Alex Cox, 1986)<b><br /></b>123. M Butterfly (David Cronenberg, 1993)<b><br /></b>124. Videodrome (David Cronenberg, 1983) <b><br /></b>125. High and Low (Akira Kurosawa, 1963)<b><br /></b></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">126. The Whip and the Body (Mario Bava, 1963)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">127. Liquid Sky (Slava Tsukerman, 1982)<b><br /></b>128. Clerks II (Kevin Smith, 2006)<b><br /></b>129. Candy (Christian Marquand, 1968)<b><br /></b>130. Lucifer Rising (Kenneth Anger, 1972)<b><br /></b>131. Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa, 1950)<b><br /></b>132. The Night Porter (Liliana Cavani, 1974)<b><br /></b>133. A Dangerous Game (Abel Ferrera, 1993)<b><br /></b>134. Monster (Patty Jenkins, 2003)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">135. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (Sam Peckinpah, 1974)<b><br /></b>136. Putney Swope (Robert Downey, Sr., 1969)<b><br /></b>137. Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages (Benjamin Christensen, 1922)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">138. Southern Comfort (Walter Hill, 1981)<b><br /></b>139. Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart At the River Styx (Kenji Misumi, 1972)<b><br /></b>140. American Pop (Ralph Bakshi, 1981)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>141. Once Were Warriors (Lee Tamahori, 1994)<b><br /></b>142. Santa Sangre (Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1989)<b><br /></b>143. Z (Costa-Gavras, 1969) <b><br /></b>144. Towers Open Fire (Antony Balch, 1963)<b><br /></b>145. Out of the Blue (Dennis Hopper, 1980)<b><br /></b>146. Watermelon Man (Melvin Van Peebles, 1970)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>147. L'Age D'Or (Luis Bunuel, 1930)<b><br /></b>148. Get Carter (Mike)Hodges, 1971)<b><br /></b>149. Coffy (Jack Hill, 1973)<b><br /></b>150. Cannibal Holocaust (Ruggero Deodato, 1980)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;"><b><br /></b>151.The Omega Man (Boris Sagal, 1971)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>152. Giants and Toys (Yasuzo Masumura, 1958)<b><br /></b>153. Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (Jamoril Jires, 1970)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">154. Freaks (Tod Browning, 1932)<b><br /></b>155. X-Men: The Last Stand (Brett Ratner, 2006)<b><br /></b>156. Carlito's Way (Brian DePalma, 1993)<b><br /></b>157. Blow Out (Brian DePalma, 1981)<b><br /></b>158. New Rose Hotel (Abel Ferrara, 1998)</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">159. Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1999)<b><br /></b>160. Week End (Jean-Luc Godard, 1967)<b><br /></b>161. Fantastic Planet (Rene Laloux, 1973)<b><br /></b>162. Once Upon A Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>163. Fingers (James Toback, 1978)<b><br /></b>164. Ikiru (Akira Kurosawa, 1952)<b><br /></b>165. A Better Tomorrow (John Woo, 1986)<b><br /></b>166. A Better Tomorrow II (John Woo, 1987)<b><br /></b>167. Nadja (Michael Almereyda, 1994)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>168. The Deer Hunter (Michael Cimino, 1978)<b><br /></b>169. Beneath the Planet of the Apes (Ted Post, 1970)<b><br /></b>170. Escape from the Planet of the Apes (Don Taylor, 1971)<b><br /></b>171. The Wrestler (Darren Aronofsky, 2008)<b><br /></b>172. Tokyo Drifter (Seijun Suzuki, 1966)<b><br /></b>173. Nashville (Robert Altman, 1975)<b><br /></b>174. Dolemite (D'Urville Martin, 1975) </span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">175. King of New York (Abel Ferrera, 1990)</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">176. The Moderns (Alan Rudolph, 1988)<b><br /></b>177. The Bad Sleep Well (Akira Kurosawa, 1960)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">178. Boogie Nights (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1997)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">179. American Splendor (Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, 2003)&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">180. The Caveman's Valentine (Kasi Lemmons, 2001)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">181. Flavia the Heretic (Gianfranco Mingozzi, 1974)<br />182. Serpico (Sidney Lumet, 1973)<b><br /></b>183. Wolfen (Michael Wadleigh, 1981)<b><br /></b>184. Temptation of A Monk (Clara Law, 1993)<b><br /></b>185. Dust Devil (Richard Stanley, 1992)<b><br /></b>186. Moll Flanders (Pen Densham, 1996)<b><br /></b>187. Violent City (Sergio Sollima, 1970)<b><br /></b>188. Revolver (Sergio Sollima, 1973)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>189. A Face in the Crowd (Elia Kazan, 1957)<b><br /></b>190. Afraid to Die (Yasuzo Masumura, 1960) <b><br /></b>191. Sweet Sweetback's Baadassss Song (Melvin Van Peebles, 1971)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>192. Oedipus Rex (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1967)<b><br /></b>193. Planet of the Vampires (Mario Bava, 1965)<b><br /></b>194.<b></b>Seconds (John Frankenheimer, 1966)&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">195. Castle of Blood (Antonio Margheriti, 1963)&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">196. Teorema (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1968)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">197. Ashes of Time Redux (Wong Kar-wai, 1994)<b><br /></b>198. Branded to Kill (Seijun Suzuki, 1967)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">199. The Howling (Joe Dante, 1981)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">200. Mallrats (Kevin Smith, 1995)</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">201. Sword of Doom (Kihachi Okamoto, 1966)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">202. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee, 2000)<b><br /></b>203. The Ninth Configuration (William Peter Blatty, 1980)<b><br /></b>204. Last Year at Marienbad (Alain Resnais, 1961)<b><br /></b>205. Antichrist (Lars von Trier, 2009)<b><br /></b>206. Manson (Robert Hendrickson, 1973) <b><br /></b>207. The Gospel According to St. Matthew (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1964)<b><br /></b>208. The Hand (Oliver Stone, 1981)<b><br /></b>209. Death Wish (Michael Winner, 1974)<b><br /></b>210. High Plains Drifter (Clint Eastwood, 1973)<b><br /></b>211. It's Alive (Larry Cohen, 1974) <b><br /></b>212. The Thing (John Carpenter, 1982)<b><br /></b>213. They Live (John Carpenter, 1988)<b><br /></b>214. Prince of Darkness (John Carpenter, 1987)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">215. God Told Me To (Larry Cohen, 1976)<b><br /></b>216. JFK (Oliver Stone, 1991)<b><br /></b>217. Wuthering Heights (Robert Fuest, 1970)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>218. Sonatine (Takeshi Kitano, 1993)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>219. Fay Grim (Hal Hartley, 2006)<b><br /></b>220. Street Smart (Jerry Schatzberg, 1987)<b><br /></b>221. Crimes of Passion (Ken Russell, 1984)<b><br /></b>222. The People vs Larry Flynt (Milos Forman, 1996)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>223. Blind Beast (Yasuzo Masumura, 1969)&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">224. Suicide Club (Shion Sono, 2001)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">225. Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 1954)</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">226. Lady Vengeance (Park Chan-wook, 2005)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">227. Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (Hugh Hudson, 1984)<b><br /></b>228. Incubus (Leslie Stevens, 1966)<b><br /></b>229. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgoisie (Luis Bunuel, 1972)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>230. Goodbye Uncle Tom (Gualtiero Jacopetti, Franco Prosperi, 1971)<b><br /></b>231. Se7en (David Fincher, 1995)<b><br /></b>232. Lenny (Bob Fosse, 1974)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>233. Venus in Furs (Jess Franco, 1969)<b><br /></b>234. Brainstorm (Douglas Trumbull, 1983)<b><br /></b>235. Companeros (Sergio Corbucci, 1970) <b><br /></b>236.<b></b>Blood and Black Lace (Mario Bava, 1964)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>237. Sex and Fury (Noribumi Suzuki, 1973)<b><br /></b>238. Punk in London (Wolfgang Buld, 1977)<b><br /></b>239. Point Blank (John Boorman, 1967)<b><br /></b>240. Silent Running (Douglas Trumbull, 1972)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">241. Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (Kevin Smith, 2001)<br />242. Heathers (Michael Lehmann, 1988)<br />243. Gozu (Takashi Miike, 2003)<br />244. Donkey Skin (Jacques Demy, 1970)<b><br /></b>245. Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">246. Last Cannibal World (Ruggero Deodato, 1977)&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">247. The One-Armed Swordsman (Chang Cheh, 1967)<b><br /></b>248. RoGoPaG (Roberto Rossellini, Jean-Luc Godard, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Ugo Gregoretti, 1963)<b><br /></b>249. King of Comedy (Martin Scorcese, 1982)&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">250. Today We Kill... Tomorrow We Die! (Tonino Cervi, 1968)<b><br /></b></span></span><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">251. The Straight Story (David Lynch, 1999)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">252. Happiness of the Katakuris (Takashi Miike, 2001)<b><br /></b>253. Blacula (William Crain, 1972)<b><br /></b>254. The Devils (Ken Russell, 1971)<b><br /></b>255. Coonskin (Ralph Bakshi, 1975)<b><br /></b>256. Pretty Baby (Louis Malle, 1978)<b><br /></b>257. Cannibal Man (Eloy de la Iglesia, 1973)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>258. The Heroic Trio (Johnnie To, 1993)<b><br /></b>259. Woman in the Dunes (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1964)<b><br /></b>260. Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979)<b><br /></b>261.&nbsp;Dracula:&nbsp;Sovereign&nbsp;of the Damned (Minoru Okazaki, 1980)<b><br /></b>262. Don't Torture A Duckling (Lucio Fulci, 1972)<b><br /></b>263.<b></b>Ravenous (Antonia Bird, 1999)<br />264. Charly (Ralph Nelson, 1968)</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">265. Dark Passage (Delmer Daves, 1947)<b><br /></b>266. The Mechanic (Michael Winner, 1972) </span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">267. Fahrenheit 451 (Francois Truffaut, 1966)<b><br /></b>268. The Witches (Mauro Bolognini, Vittorio De Sica, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Franco Rossi, Luchino Visconti, 1969)<b><br /></b>269. The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy, 1973)<b><br /></b>270. Unbreakable (M Night Shyamalan, 2000)<br />271. The Lathe of Heaven (Fred Barzyk, David R. Loxton, 1980)4<b><br /></b>272. Red (Lucky McKee, Trygve Allister Diesen, 2008)<b><br /></b>273. Harakiri (Masaki Kobayashi, 1962)<b><br /></b>274. Clerks (Kevin Smith, 1994)<br />273. Succubus (Jess Franco, 1967)<b><br /></b>274. The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan, 2008)<b><br /></b>275. Les Vampires (Louis Feuillade, 1915-1916)</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">276. City of the Living Dead (Lucio Fulci, 1980)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>277. The Panic in Needle Park (Jerry Schatzberg, 1971)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">278. Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter (Yasuharu Hasebe, 1970)<b><br /></b>279. Jackie Brown (Quentin Tarantino, 1997)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>280. Meet the Feebles (Peter Jackson, 1989)<b><br /></b>281. The Black Cat (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1934)<b><br /></b>282. Lisa and the Devil (Mario Bava, 1973)<b><br /></b>283. Carnival of Souls (Herk Harvey, 1962)<b><br /></b>284. Black Test Car (Yasuzo Masumura, 1962)<b><br /></b>285. Masculin Feminin (Jean-Luc Godard, 1966)<b><br /></b>286. A Touch of Zen (King Hu, 1971) <b><br /></b>287. A Lizard in A Woman's Skin (Lucio Fulci, 1971)<b><br /></b>288. Kill Baby Kill (Mario Bava, 1966)<b><br /></b>289. Dr. Strange (Philip DeGuere, 1978)<b><br /></b>290. The Story of A Three-Day Pass (Melvin Van Peebles, 1968)&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">291. The Testament of Orpheus (Jean Cocteau, 1960)<b><br /></b>292. Meshes of the Afternoon (Maya Deren, 1943)<b><br /></b>293. Fireworks (Kenneth Anger, 1947)<b><br /></b>294. The Blood of A Poet (Jean Cocteau, 1932)<b><br /></b>295. The Human Tornado (Cliff Roquemore, 1976)<b><br /></b>296. May (Lucky McKee, 2002)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>297.<b></b>The Cut-Ups (Antony Balch, 1966)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">298. The Crow (Alex Proyas, 1994)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">299. Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">300. Repo Man (Alex Cox, 1984)</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">301. Audition (Takashi Miike, 1999)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">302. Black Shampoo (Greydon Clark, 1976<b><br /></b>303. Choose Me (Alan Rudolph, 1984)&nbsp; <b><br /></b>304. The Last Temptation of Christ (Martin Scorcese, 1988)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>305. Judex (Georges Franju, 1963)<b><br /></b>306. Porcile (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1969)<b><br /></b>307. Deliverance (John Boorman, 1972)<b><br /></b>308. Casualties of War (Brian DePalma, 1989)<b><br /></b>309. Cobra Verde (Werner Herzog, 1987)<b><br /></b>310. Repulsion (Roman Polanski, 1965)<b><br /></b>311.<b></b>Don't Look Now (Nicolas Roeg, 1973)<b><br /></b>312. Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance (Kenji Misumi, 1972)<b><br /></b>313. Rosetta (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, 1999)<b><br /></b>314. Baby Doll (Elia Kazan, 1956)<b><br /></b>315. Golden Swallow (Chang Cheh, 1968)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">316. Descent (Talia Lugacy, 2007)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">317. Dirty Pretty Things (Stephen Frears, 2002)</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">318. The Saragossa Manuscript (Wojciech Has, 1965) <b><br /></b>319. Hero (Zhang Yimou, 2002)<b><br /></b>320. Mad Monster Party (Jules Bass, 1967)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>321. Q the Winged Serpent (Larry Cohen, 1982)<b><br /></b>322. The Belly of an Architect (Peter Greenaway, 1987<b><br /></b>323. Fando &amp; Lis (Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1968)<b><br /></b>324. Onibaba (Kaneto Shindo, 1964)<b><br /></b>325. Jubilee (Derek Jarman, 1978)<b><br /></b></span></span><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">326. Strange Hostel of Naked Pleasures (Marcelo Motta, Jose Mojica Marins, 1976)&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">327. Superman: The Movie (Richard Donner, 1978)<b><br /></b>328. Looking for Mr. Goodbar (Richard Brooks, 1977)<b><br /></b>329. The Man Who Fell to Earth (Nicolas Roeg, 1976).&nbsp;<b><br /></b>330. Contraband (Lucio Fulci, 1980)<b><br /></b>331. Dragon Inn (Raymond Lee, 1992)<b><br /></b>332. Night of the Comet (Thom E. Eberhardt, 1984)<b><br /></b>333. Kanto Wanderer (Seijun Suzuki, 1963)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>334. A Bay of Blood (Mario Bava, 1971)<b><br /></b>335. Baba Yaga (Corrado Farina, 1973)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>336. Kiss Me Deadly (Robert Aldrich, 1955)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>337. Days of Being Wild (Wong Kar-wai, 1990)<b><br /></b>338. Murder My Sweet (Edward Dymytryk, 1944)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>339. The Wizard of Gore (Herschell Gordon Lewis, 1970)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>340. The Patchwork Girl of Oz (J. Farrell MacDonald, 1914)</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">341. The Last House on Dead End Street (Roger Watkins, 1977)<b><br /></b>342. J.D.'s Revenge (Arthur Marks, 1976)<b><br /></b>343. Daughters of Darkness (Harry Kumel, 1971)<b><br /></b>344. Vampyres (Jose Larraz, 1974)<b><br /></b>345. Shiver of the Vampires (Jean Rollin, 1972)<b><br /></b>346. Talk Radio (Oliver Stone, 1988)<b><br /></b>347. One on Top of the Other (Lucio Fulci, 1969)<b><br /></b>348. Danger: Diabolik (Mario Bava, 1968)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>349. In Cold Blood (Richard Brooks, 1967) </span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">350. The Lady Hermit (Meng Hua Ho, 1971)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;"><br />351. Female Convict Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 (Shunya Ito, 1972)<b><br /></b>352. Sympathy for the Devil (Jean-Luc Godard, 1968)<b><br /></b>353. Five Dolls for an August Moon (Mario Bava, 1970)<b><br /></b>354. The Harder They Come (Perry Henzell, 1972)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>355. The Professionals (Richard Brooks, 1966)<b><br /></b>356. Lulu on the Bridge (Paul Auster, 1998)<b><br /></b>357. Prospero's Books (1991)<b><br /></b>358. A Snake of June (Shinya Tsukamoto, 2002)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">359. Tetsuo: the Iron Man (Shinya Tsukamoto, 1989)<b><br /></b>360. The Ice Storm (Ang Lee, 1997)<b><br /></b>361. Harold and Maude (Hal Ashby, 1971)<b><br /></b>362. Flesh Gordon (Michael Benveniste, Howard Ziehm, 1974)<b><br /></b>363. A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971)<b><br /></b>364. A Boy and His Dog (L.Q. Jones, 1975)<b><br /></b>365. Thor (Kenneth Branagh, 2011)<b><br /></b>366. Puce Moment (Kenneth Anger, 1949)<b><br /></b>367. Return to Oz (Walter Murch, 1985)<b><br /></b>368. Lolita (Adrian Lyne, 1997)<b><br /></b>369. The Addiction (Abel Ferrara, 1995)<b><br /></b>370. Irma Vep (Olivier Assayas, 1996)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>371. Beauty and the Beast (Jean Cocteau, 1946)<b><br /></b>372. Tattooed Life (Seijun Suzuki, 1965)<b><br /></b>373. Chinese Box (Wayne Wang, 1997)<b><br /></b>374. The Devil's Rejects (Rob Zombie, 2005)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">375. The Butterfly Ball (Tony Klinger, 1977)</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">376. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (Leonard Nim8y, 1986)<b><br /></b>377. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Nicholas Meyer, 1982)<b><br /></b>378. Un Chant D'Amour (Jean Genet, 1950)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>379. Shadows (John Cassavettes, 1959)<b><br /></b>382. Scanners (David Cronenberg, 1980)<b><br /></b>383. The Incredible Shrinking Man (Jack Arnold, 1957)<b><br /></b>384. The Brood (David Cronenberg, 1979)<b><br /></b>385. Hell of the Living Dead (Bruno Mattei, 1980)<b><br /></b>386. Return of the One-Armed Swordsman (Chang Cheh, 1969)<b><br /></b>387. Eyes Without A Face (Georges Franju, 1960)<b><br /></b>388. Take A Hard Ride (Antonio Margheriti, 1975)<b><br /></b>389. Bury Me An Angel (Barbara Peeters, 1972)<b><br /></b>390. Return of the Living Dead (Dan O'Bannon, 1985)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">391. Sister Street Fighter (Kazuhiko Yamaguchi, 1974) <b><br /></b>392. Watership Down (Martin Rosen, 1978)<b><br /></b>393. Dog Star Man (Stan Brakhage, 1962-1964)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>394. Throne of Blood (Akira Kurosawa, 1957)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">395. Koko, A Talking Gorilla (Barbet Schroeder, 1978)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>396. Hard Eight (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1996)<br />397. Full Contact (Ringo Lam, 1992)&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">398. Mr. Frost (Phillipe Setbon, 1990)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">399. Jungle Emperor Leo (Yoshio Takeuchi, 1997)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">400. Fellini Satyricon (Federico Fellini, 1970)</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">401. Night Tide (Curtis Harrington, 1961)<b><br /></b>402. Gimme Shelter (Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin, 1970)<b><br /></b>403. Spasmo (Umberto Lenzi, 1974)</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">404. The Mansion of Madness (Juan Lopez Moctezuma, 1973)<b><br /></b>405. The Last Movie (Dennis Hopper, 1971) </span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">406. Joshua (Larry G. Spangler, 1976)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">407. The Stranger's Gundown (Sergio Garrone, 1969)<b><br /></b>408. Blazing Saddles (Mel Brooks, 1974)<b><br /></b>409. Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (Kenneth Anger, 1954)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">410. Near Dark (Kathryn Bigelow, 1987)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">411. Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (Jim Jarmusch, 1999)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">412. Hong Kong 1941 (Po-Chih Leong, 1984)&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">413. Bad Lieutenant (Abel Ferrara, 1992)<b><br /></b>414. Gambling City (Sergio Martino, 1975)<b><br /></b>415. Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper, 1969)<b><br /></b>416. La Encadenada (Manuel Mur Oti, 1975)<b><br /></b>417. The Glass Ceiling (Eloy de la Iglesia, 1971)<b><br /></b>418. Images (Robert Altman, 1972)<b><br /></b>419. The Haunted Palace (Roger Corman, 1963)<b><br /></b>420. Invitation to A Gunfighter (Richard Wilson, 1964)<b><br /></b>421. Down and Dirty Duck (Charles Swenson, 1974)<b><br /></b>422. Jane Eyre (Robert Stevenson, 1943)<br />423. Henry Fool (Hal Hartley, 1997)<b><br /></b>424. Ladies and Gentlemen The Fabulous Stains (Lou Adler, 1982)<b><br /></b>425.&nbsp;Phantom of the Paradise (Brian DePalma, 1974)<b><br /></b></span></span><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">426.&nbsp;Whore (Ken Russell, 1991)<b><br /></b>427. Baise-Moi (Virginie Despentes, Coralie, 2000)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>428. Short Eyes (Robert M Young, 1977)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>429. Casino (Martin Scorcese, 1995)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">430. Gun Crazy (Joseph H Lewis, 1950)<b><br /></b>431. The Hawks and The Sparrows (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1966)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">432. The Honeymoon Killers (Leonard Kastle, 1969)<br />433. Space Is the Place (John Coney, 1974)<br />434. Underworld Beauty (Seijun Suzuki, 1958)<b><br /></b>435. M*A*S*H (Robert Altman, 1970)<b><br /></b>436. Wizards (Ralph Bakshi, 1977)<b><br /></b>437. Battlestar Galactica (Richard A Colla, 1978)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>438. That Man Bolt (Henry Levin, David Lowell Rich, 1973)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">439. Clean (Olivier Assayas, 2004)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">440. <span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Forbidden Planet (Fred M Wilcox, 1956)</span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">441. American Psycho (Mary Harron, 2000)<b><br /></b>442. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1964)<br />443. Lost Highway (David Lynch, 1997)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">444. The Man in the Moon (Robert Mulligan, 1991)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">445. Angel Heart (Alan Parker, 1987)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">446. Manhunter (Michael Mann, 1986)<b><br /></b>447. To Live and Die in LA (William Friedkin, 1985)&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">447. The Wages of Fear (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1953)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">448. Run, Man, Run! (Sergio Sollima, 1968)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">449. Zachariah (George Englund, 1971)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">450. Enter the Dragon (Robert Clouse, 1973)</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">451. The Punk Rock Movie (Don Letts, 1978)<b><br /></b>452. Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of A Serial Killer (Nick Broomfield, 1993)<b><br /></b>453. The Red Shoes&nbsp;(Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1948)<b><br /></b>454.&nbsp;Tenebrae (Dario Argento, 1982)<b><br /></b>455.&nbsp;His Majesty the Scarecrow of Oz (L. Frank Baum, 1914)<b><br /></b>456.&nbsp;Aileen: The Life and Death of A Serial Killer (Nick Broomfield, 2003)<b><br /></b>457.&nbsp;Oui, mais... (Yves Lavandier, 2001)<b><br /></b>458. Django, Kill! If You Live, Shoot! (Giulio Questi, 1967)<b><br /></b>459. Penitentiary (Jamaa Fanaka, 1979)<b><br /></b>460. Black Sabbath (Mario Bava, 1963)<b><br /></b>461. Female Trouble (John Waters, 1978)<b><br /></b>462. Polyester (John Waters, 1980)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">463. Season of the Witch (George A Romero, 1972)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">464. Shivers (David Cronenberg, 1975)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">465. The Bitter Tears of Petra van Kant (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1972)<b><br /></b>466. Party Girl (Daisy von Scherler Mayer, 1995)<b><br /></b>467. Go (Doug Liman, 1999)<b><br /></b>468. Nerosubianco (Tinto Brass, 1969)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">469. Eve's Bayou (Kassi Lemmons, 1997)<br />470. Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning (Grant Harvey, 2004)<br />471. Breaking In (Bill Forsyth, 1989)<br />472. Amateur (Hal Hartley, 1994)<br />473. Johnny Got His Gun (Dalton Trumbo, 1971)<br />474. A Zed and Two Noughts (Peter Greenaway, 1985)<br />475. The Kentucky Fried Movie (John Landis, 1974)</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">476. Living in Oblivion (Tom DiCillo, 1995)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">477. Gregory's Girl (Bill Forsyth, 1981)<br />478.&nbsp;Hannie Caulder (Burt Kennedy, 1971)<br />479. What Have You Done to Solange? (Massimo Dallamano, 1972)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">480. Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural (Richard Blackburn, 1973)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">481. Beatrice Cenci (Lucio Fulci, 1969)<br />482.. Force of Evil (Abraham Polonsky, 1948)<br />483. Werewolf Shadow (Leon Klimovsky, 1971)&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">484. Shock Treatment (Jim Sharman, 1980)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">485. No One Heard the Scream (Eloy de la Iglesia, 1973)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">486. Blackmail Is My Life (Kenji Fukasaku, 1968)<br />487. Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, 1957)<br />488. Myra Breckinridge (Michael Sarne, 1970)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">489. Deadly Sweet (Tinto Brass, 1967)</span></span><br /><div align="LEFT" style="widows: 1;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">490. Mama und Papa (Kurt Kren, 1964)<br />491. Ana (Kurt Kren, 1964)<br />492. Romper Stomper (Geoffrey Wright, 1992)<br />493. Rosemary's Baby (Roman Polanski, 2014)<br />494. The Virgin Spring (Ingmar Bergman, 1960)<br />495. The Last House on the Left (Wes Craven, 1972)<br />496. Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat (Robert Taylor, 1974)<br />497. The Pitfall (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1962)<br />498. Woyczek (Werner Herzog, 1979)<br />499. Sister Street Fighter: Hanging by A Thread (Kazuhiko Yamaguchi, 1974)</span></span></div><div align="LEFT" style="widows: 1;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">500.&nbsp;Salo, Or the 120 Days of Sodom (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1975)&nbsp;</span></span></div><div align="LEFT" style="widows: 1;"><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></div><div align="LEFT" style="widows: 1;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">501. Witch from Nepal (Siu-Tung Ching, 1985)<br />502. Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, 1950)<br />503. The Exterminating Angel (Luis Bunuel, 1962)<br />504. The Long Hair of Death (Antonio Margheriti, 1964)<br />505. Tombs of the Blind Dead (Armando de Ossorio, 1972)<br />506. Web of the Spider (Antonio Margheriti, 1971)<br />507. Targets (Peter Bogdanovich, 1968)<br />508. Nightmare Castle (Mario Caiano, 1965)<br />509. Fox and His Friends (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1975)<br />510.&nbsp;La Grande Boufee (Marco Ferreri, 1973)<br />511. A Woman Under the Influence (John Cassavettes, 1974)<br />512. The Pyjama Girl Case (Flavio Mogherini, 1977)<br />513.&nbsp;Spider Baby (Jack Hill, 1968)<br />514. Electra Glide in Blue (James William Guercio, 1973)<br />515. Sorcerer (William Friedkin, 1977)<br />516. Jigoku (Nobuo Nakagawa, 1960)<br />517. Un Chien Andalou (Luis Bunuel, 1929)<br />518. Peace Hotel (Ka-Fai Wai, 1995)</span></span></div><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">519. Sick Girl (Lucky McKee, 2006)<b><br /></b>520. It Lives Again (Larry Cohen, 1978)<br />521. Assault on Precinct 13 (John Carpenter, 1976)&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">522. Roseland (Fredric Hobbs, 1971)<br />523. For A Few Dollars More (Sergio Leone, 1965)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">524.Gods and Monsters (Bill Condon, 1998)<br />525. Straight Time (Ulu Grosbard, 1978)</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">526. Red Lion (Kihachi Okamoto, 1969)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">527. Django Strikes Again (Nello Rosati, 1987)<b><br /></b>528. Escape from New York (John Carpenter, 1981)<b><br /></b>529. The Velvet Vampire (Stephanie Rothman, 1971)<b><br /></b>530. She-Devils on Wheels (Herschell Gordon Lewis, 1968)&nbsp;<b><br /></b>531. Fight Club (David Fincher, 1999)<b><br /></b>532. Vigilante (William Lustig, 1983)<b><br /></b>533. Mannaja (Sergio Martino, 1977)<b><br /></b>534. Stray Dog (Akira Kurosawa, 1949)<b><br /></b>535. Frankenstein: The True Story (Jack Smight, 1973)<b><br /></b>536. Female Yakuza Tale (Teruo Ishii, 1973)<b><br /></b>537. Blood Sabbath (Brianne Murphy, 1972)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">538. I Spit on Your Grave (Meir Zarchi, 1978)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">539. Black Sunday (Mario Bava, 1960)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">540. Le Jardin des Supplices (Christian Gion, 1976)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">541. Gojira (Ishiro Honda, 1954)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">542. The Magic Cloak of Oz (J. Farrell MacDonald, 1914)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">543. Stereo (David Cronenberg, 1969)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">544. Crimes of the Future (David Cronenberg, 1970)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">545. Hercules in the Haunted World (Mario Bava, 1961)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">546. Death Laid An Egg (Giulio Questi, 1968)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">547. Murder in A Blue World (Eloy de la Iglesia, 1973)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">548. Pena de Muerte (Jorge Grau, 1973)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">549. The Night Stalker (John Llewellyn Moxey, 1972)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">550. Invocation of My Demon Brother (Kenneth Anger, 1969)&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">551. Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstien, 1925)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;">552. Emma Mae (Jamaa Fanaka, 1976)<br />553. Case of the Bloody Iris (Giuliano Carmineo, 1972)&nbsp; <br />554. Akira (Katsuhiro Ohtomo, 1988)<br />555. Carrie (Brian DePalma, 1976)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: #f7f0e9; color: #3d85c6; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">As with last year's list, I dedicate this list to fellow film fanatic friends Bill White, Sean Levin, Michael T Jones, Tim McLain, and Scott "Vesbius Flestrin" Mosley. And, of course, to the wonderful woman who watches all this with me: Sarah L Covert.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="background-color: #f7f0e9; color: #3d85c6; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: #f7f0e9; color: #632035; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"></span><span style="background-color: #f7f0e9; color: #3d85c6; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Comments and brickbats welcome.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span></span>Henry Coverthttps://plus.google.com/103990383640616339933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3852574899003991711.post-59769339236458240502015-02-18T10:17:00.002-08:002015-02-20T05:56:16.243-08:00A FLICKER STREET Dispatch: An Exercise in Metafiction As Rock Journalism by Henry Covert<span style="font-family: Gabriola, fantasy;"><b>ONUS Summer 2009 - Celebrating 20 Years of Transgressive Media&nbsp;</b></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>WHERE DOGG DWELLS</b></span><br /><b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">by Sam Pace</span></b><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 17px;"><i>It's time to speak yet again of Mercyless Dogg. This band, exalted above all others by natives and transplants alike in the Hallmark- Mosaic-Gossingham scene, has been my favorite since the debut of their most common incarnation in 1990 (Nearly 20 years!? Agh. The grey beard overtakes me). But even before that, back when I hurriedly skipped school to unwrap and aurally digest a new single or LP by their original iteration (as spelled “Merciless Dog” [though they are credited on their 1986&nbsp; five-track cassette only debut as “Merciless Merc and the Merciless Dogs”]), this band grabbed me by the ears, the throat, the gonads and the soul and has yet to yield even an inch (Take that as you may...).</i></span><br /><br /><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Part 1. Merciless Merc His Brother The Bands and the Players</i><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The genesis of Mercyless Dogg lies with original leader/ co-founder/ drummer/ vocalist Mercer “Merc” Dowle (who dropped the “Merciless” after that long out of print cassette was issued) and his brother, co-founder/ lead vocalist/ keyboardist/ unorthodox percussionist Parcs Dowle (who soon ceased being “Peerless Parcs” as well). The brothers began actively seeking players in the Hallmark area to form an eclectic “post-rock” band beginning in March 1985. Merc was a 23 year old session player for several cover bands, mostly those into country or metal. Merc himself though aspired to be a jazz drummer and appeared on new age keyboard virtuoso Timothy Sessions' 1983 album </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Looking Inside</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">. Parcs Dowle was a 15 year old suburban punk and drop-out who lived with his older brother rent free in the Northlands area of Hallmark. Merc was essentially raising Parcs after their dysfunctional life in a Gossingham trailer park (embodied by their perennially enraged father Campbell Dowle) forced both brothers out in 1980. But, as the cliché goes, all they wanted to do was play music...</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Frustration with the band's inability to gel, and Merc's insistence on being both drummer and band leader, led the younger Dowle to play out on the side with a hardcore punk band called Alsatian Hound (the name was inspired by Merciless Dog, not vice versa). Hound's inability to obtain gigs was nearly comical, as were the insanely short bursts of human nitroglycerin that they characterized as “tunes” (captured on the abstract and addictive EP </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Cynicism Pinnacle </i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">(a superb hardcore band later named themselves for this album, which was of Hound guitarist Brains' coinage). Tragically, of their steadiest members beyond Parcs, Jim Natchey (bassist/ vocalist) ditched them for junior high prog rock group Tenebruso (Parcs had replaced their drummer, Corey Samson, when Corey joined up with Tenebruso), and Brains met with an untimely demise at age 23.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">To continue Alsatian Hound, Parcs recruited Jeremiah Thorne, barely 16 years old and, briefly, former keyboardist for Tenebruso. Thorne replaced Natchey on bass in Hound, but almost immediately Merc invited “JT” into his band and Parcs relented and became a full-time member for the time being. With their sister group scuttled for the nonce, “Merciless Merc and the Merciless Dogs” (Parcs hated the band's name for many reasons) sought a lead guitar player, originally offering 15 year old self-proclaimed whiz kid Dyson Bryles the spot, but Tenebruso was his band. The well was also poisoned by the fact that Dyson, after designing Alsatian Hound's band logo and getting them two gigs, began bad-mouthing the group and boasted that their finest members had all defected to Bryles' outfit.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">After auditioning a half dozen guitar players, an idiosyncratic “older woman” (nearly 20 years old!) obliquely calling herself “Polly Dagger” (born Jenna J. Stroupe) stepped up to the plate. At her audition, she “shredded” for a good while, the group ran over a few cover tunes, and then agreed to work on the band's tiny repertoire, This consisted at the time of a drums and percussion piece“Cacophony”, featuring Merc and Parcs; “Do or Die Baby” (a fairly straight ahead metallic tune); and an instrumental with Thorne on keys (he was on bass for the remainder of the audition) that so far lacked lyrics. Polly played tambourine on the first of those; vamped endlessly with her tremulo on the second; and attempted vocals and lyrics on the untitled third tune. Polly was somewhat enthusiastic, and was deemed by Parcs as “sexy enough” to front the group, but Merc told her to walk for a number of reasons. He disliked her voice on the untitled track, and hated her solos on “Do or Die Baby”. He told her she was “too metal”, “too straightforward”,and “not experimental enough”. “Me??”, she allegedly retorted. “Not – Experimental – enough?!? When you make a living playing bad honky-tonk covers in redneck dives???” Parcs then imitated her (he has this, er, interesting proclivity for mimicry) her screaming “not experimental enough?” and she walked out, furious and crying. Jeremiah tried to apologize for Parcs but she moved too fast for JT (and that can be taken many ways given their later history).</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mercer Dowle was not the greatest songwriter or vocalist on the scene (though he was without question a formidable percussionist), but he had an impeccable ear for talent, and the uncanny ability to coax the most far-flung sounds from the hands and minds of that talent. Once armed with Jeremiah Thorne on bass and keyboards, the group evolved quickly. This was the result of the Dowle brothers' pivotal discovery in their last ditch quest for a string-slinger after the Dagger debacle. Merc auditioned a 16 year old drifter who fortuitously was a new hire at the same grocery store that employed Thorne and Merc. He called himself Jareth Lloyd-Langton, and once installed as guitarist, his mastery of his axe was chilling, especially given his age and claims that he was entirely an autodidact.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">This band's brilliance was first gleaned by yours truly from the self-titled </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Merciless</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Dog</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"> EP, released in October 1986. At that time, I knew next to none of the above history. I was introduced to a band a bit different than the group featured on the cassette. In the summer of 1986 Parcs decided to make a go of Alsatian Hound and they began a world tour as openers for two heavy bands of greater stature, the headliners being the mighty White Rabbit. Parcs stuck to drums (and vocals) in Hound. Parcs' replacement as lead vocalist came to the group via an earlier guitar audition. Interestingly, Jareth really loved the voice of one of the applicants and suggested he be allowed to try out as lead vocalist and also play rhythm guitar so that Jareth could stretch out on his lead work. Merc contacted the player, one Dietrich Palmer, a 21 year old native of Hallmark. Palmer sealed for Merc the elusive sound the Merciless One had been groping for. Palmer also played some keys live so that JT could stick to the bass.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Dietrich brought with him producer/ engineer Cavett Copeland, and mixer Fielding Schmikler, both of whom worked at the same recording studio where Palmer toiled. The band, with Cavett and Schmikler, spent a few months constructing the sound that would introduce the world to Merciless Dog's uniqueness. The final result featured five tracks, as the demo tape had. Four were reworked tunes from the tape. But these were no uninspired retreads. “Untitled” was an extrapolation on Lloyd-Langton's extended jam from the “Merciless Merc” tape. It was breathtaking, as was new track “Soul Child”, written and recorded last by Merc Dowle and Dietrich Palmer. On this track Palmer was allowed to duel with Jareth a bit on the fretboard and he was no slouch. Dietrich had a bluesier, soul-inflected tone that created a certain tension when pitted against Jareth's transcendent wall of sound. </span></span><br /><br />“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Season of the Bitch” was the instrumental track that had the group at loggerheads with Miss Polly Dagger. To cap off a fantastic riff, Jeremiah had devised some bitingly humorous lyrics lampooning Polly's aura of self-importance. Again, this was bitterly ironic given later developments. The EP closed with “Do or Die Baby”, greatly improved by Dietrich's vocals and something of a minor “power metal” masterwork. Merc refused Cavett's idea to craft a single version and a video for the tune. Much more significantly, the EP opened with a group composition by Merc, Thorne, and Jareth that to this day is hotly requested at nearly every Dogg show – and has been played by every lineup - the abstrusely titled “And Throw My Coffin....Into the Oven” - the first of many Dog/ Dogg classics.</span></span><br /><br /><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Part 2. In Rabid Days and Frish Years</i><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">It was a long 10 months before August 1987 saw the debut of the first Merciless Dog album proper. Called simply </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Rabid</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">, it had attracted quite a pedigree behind the knobs – “mix-master” Fielding Schmikler was back; apprentice engineer Joplin Jones signed on; and Merc's old collaborator Timothy Sessions joined the band as Keyboardist and also produced the record. Tim was already on board as producer when Jeremiah went on the run with his young lover Juliana Florenza. The events that befell the youths that year have been chronicled beautifully by Leo Rosegrave for this very magazine's Fall 2002 issue in the article “Bleeding Thornes” (we were even sued over the piece by Jeremiah's cousin Nanda Lloyd-Langton [note the surname]).</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">So Sessions stepped in and played all of the keys on the album, covering Jeremiah's parts on the tunes JT penned, and adding his own atmospheric tangents. Merc asked Tim to join the band full time. Tim declined, but consented to play with the group on their first real club tour. What ensued was an orgasmic experience for this young fan – rabid indeed! I was frothing at the nether regions over the prospects of seeing this band live and up close after becoming obsessed by their first full-length platter.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Regarding </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Rabid...</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"> I noted a marked difference between the garage-punk honky-funk of MD' previous outings. For one thing, there was an almost entirely new band in town. I missed the primitive dirge of Parcs and JT, but Tim Sessions was an amazing player, and steered the material in new and decidedly bizarre directions. Dietrich Palmer was the new (seeming) star of the proverbial show, handling co-lead vocals with an aplomb not naturally bestowed upon the Dowle brothers. Dietrich's guitar was smoother than on his rhythm work backing Jareth on the EP. But the real revelation was the mysterious Convy Lee Sutch, a monster bass player and a vocalist as adept at oldschool soul and Brit-inflected new wave as he was at screaming raw migraine inducers.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The group showed many nods to their humble origins on </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Rabid</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"> – reiterating tracks from their first two statements: “Soul Child”, now attuned to Session's honk-tonk booze-bar stylings and jazzy runs; and “Cacophony”, which had evolved into an amazing piece of drum work, no less so for it featuring Merc solo on percussion, overdubbing parts originally played by Parcs. But Sutch, Thorne, and Lloyd-Langton were marvelously gelling as a fledgling songwriting troop penning stirring original material, such as the spacey instrumental “Topaz”, featuring Jareth on an 8 stringer fueled by a fiery 'Zoom Box' and JT playing an old Custom amp awash in acidic vibrato. These kids were already not to be messed with; they were poor, sure, but their occasional windfalls netted them some top notch equipment. But what they lacked in that area, they more than overcompensated for in raw creativity and sonic exploration. I admit, it was all a bit over my classic rock/ heavy metal-weened noggin at the time. I was just beginning to touch punk and prog, and R &amp; B and jazz remained nearly profanity in my house. But I caught up quickly – and I largely credit Merciless Dog for that.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The first “progressive” track MD really unveiled was also on </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Rabid</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">- penned by Jareth, Jeremiah, and Convy Lee: “The Blackest Heaven, the Whitest Hell”, a lengthy melange of mood, poignant at times, fiery as Ragnarok at others. Sutch's introspective lyrics dovetailed beautifully with Tim's wafting waves of immersive sound and Jareth's blistering bullets of cosmic metal. Indeed this track got him nominated Best Newcomer with Electrify magazine (an old alma mater of mine). Beyond this, much of </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Rabid</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"> was strictly under the direction of Sessions, i.e. the boogie-folk of “Southside Shaman”, based around a funky groove written by Thorne and Convy Lee (or CL as his friends began to call him). Arranged by Sessions, this track featured somewhat banal lyrics by Merciless Merc himself, who after this album lost interest largely in writing (he only penned one other lyric for the band) in favor of leading, directing and hyping the group. And playing of course - at the time, I thought Merc could do no wrong at the drum kit – though he barely had a chance to truly blossom, as we shall see.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Merc's more commercial yearnings, along with those of Fielding Schmikler, began to die a profound death with </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Expect No Mercy</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">, Dog's 2</span><sup style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">nd</sup><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">full-length LP/CD, released in December 1987. Tim Sessions was busy with prior commitments, Parcs was too busy to rejoin Merc's circus, and, sadly of all, Jareth Lloyd-Langton suddenly decamped, citing personal reasons (just how personal the band would be staggered to learn in coming months). But at least Jeremiah Thorne was able to return to the band after his many skirmishes with near-death. Against what he felt was his better judgment, Schmikler went along with Merc's plans to bring in a new lead guitarist, a new lead vocalist – and a new, somewhat untried producer. Garnet Pace was a DJ from the same small town, Gossingham, that spawned the mysterious Convy Lee Sutch (full disclosure: Garnet is indeed the first cousin of this author, also from Gossingham, though no love is lost in that relationship – nor is this an egregious smear). As a matter of fact the two had had a previous relationship – far from the professional one they now strove to carry on with. CL completely distrusted his ex but kept most of his feelings to himself. Garnet was indeed a pro, and her hiring was orchestrated by forces out to hurt the band – and not just musically.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Garnet immediately hired MD's first femme lead vocalist – Lacey Corbensen, who at that time involved with none other than Jareth! The drama between Lacey &amp; Jareth slowed down the album considerably – and made Jareth more resolute than ever he'd wing it solo. He began sessions with Joplin Jones, and as his relationship with Lacey eroded, he became intensely interested in JT's former girlfriend Juliana Florenza. But Jareth's mysteries were nothing set against those of new MD recruit Perry Frish, a highly idioyncratic, intellectual experimenter with axe and words alike. Merc, for one, grew to dig the more challenging musical structures, as did CL. The two generally followed Frish's lead, which resulted in Merciless Dog's first cult tunes (aside from “And Throw My Coffin... Into the Oven”): “Lifeforce”, “Cyclothymic Reaction”, “By the Narrowest of Margins”, and Frish's and Dowle's grinding paranoiac “Psychickal Invasions”. Frish's main drawback was that he, like Jareth, CL, and the hot new guitarist in Hallmark, Japanese Koro Takamatsu, were all prime suspects in the bizarre “Transient” case (cf Leo Rosegrave's aforementioned ONUS article “Bleeding Thornes”), which was resolved early in Frish's tenure in MD.</span><br /><br /><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Expect No Mercy </i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">was rounded out by two Dowle/ Corbensen tracks that hearkened back to the style found on the MD demos, and Convy Lee Sutch swallowed his pride and sang and wrote the music &amp; lyrics (and played most instruments) for his lament “Tressa”, in which he finally publicly declared his love for the woman he felt was his soulmate, Tressa Matalaine (fortunately she came to feel the same). “Tressa” was the first modest hit for MD, and the album moved fairly well. Rather than rest on their proverbial laurels, the same lineup immediately returned to the studio. For the first time the pressure was on for Merc and his imbibing of substances became his coping mechanism. He began to drive himself insanely hard and Parcs offered to pick up some slack, but Merc refused. Merc and Frish had many clashes over the direction of the group, though they were both more popular and more avant-garde than ever – a rare alchemy not to be trifled with. Merc also felt betrayed by Lloyd-Langton. He swore Jareth would never rejoin Merciless Dog as long as Merc lived. Prophetic...</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Frish wished to call the 3</span><sup style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">rd</sup><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"> full Merciless Dog album </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Psychick Wind</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">, but Merc, who stepped up to produce this release himself, prevailed, with </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mercy Killing</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">, adorned with a cover of rather dubious taste, winning out as the title. The album was indeed schizo, with opening tracks “Mercy Killing”, by Dowle alone, and “More Lies about Vietnam”, by Thorne, presenting a retrogressive, though tuneful, face to the band. Thorne's track was written when he was a 14 year old hippie with hair down his waist and his mind obsessed by 'Nam, John Lennon, the Kennedys, My Lai, and other moribund '60s American touchstones. Thorne next collaborated with Perry Frish on their original title track, “Psychick Wind”, which steered the LP into a much more serious, even grim, vein. This is often called Merciless Dog's “dark” album, and fittingly so, as it was the last time this band assembled under this name. Perry Frish's classic “Unilateral Occidental”, a complex guitar workout, continued the fun, as did the claustrophobic Dowle/ Thorne/ Corbensen downer “Euthanasia”. Climaxing the record are two tracks that became live staples in years to come: “Born Upon the Sun”,an existentialist fairy tale of sorts composed by most of the band [sans Lacey]; and the soul-wrenching “My Heart Is Raw”, written largely by Sutch but brought to chilling life by Lacey Corbensen.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Sadly, Percy Frish was mysteriously killed upon completion of this record. It was soon decided to call the group quits following the fatal drug overdose of Merc Dowle's (or so went the “official explanation” - again, see the amazing articles by Leo Rosegrave, who delves deep under the skin of the Hallmark scene). But original MD members Jeremiah Thorne and Parcs Dowle (drafted back into the group on drums to fulfill the final obligations of MD's massive tour, their first headlining) believed otherwise. To mark this as a new band of sorts, the group began spelling their name 'Mercyless Dogg' and hit the reset button on their official discography, commencing with their “first” album, 1990's </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Pariah</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">. Just prior to that record, the many (living) musicians to play with Merciless Dog assembled for a one-off live triple LP/ Double CD offering:</span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"> All His Glory: The Definitive Live Merciless Dog June 1989</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">. Many live tracks from over the years, all the way to the final world tour, are found here, under the production of the Dowle brothers and Fielding Schmikler. </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">All His Glory </i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">was so well-received that several of the pre-Mercyless Dogg tracks, found their way permanently into intervening setlists. Notable examples are, among others, “And Throw My Coffin... Into the Oven”, “Tressa”, “Topaz”, “Unilateral Occidental”, and “My Heart Is Raw”.&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Thus marked the end of the band that became the band, so to speak.</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">&nbsp;</span><br /><br /><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Part 3. Mercyless Dogg Proper</i><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Released in October 1990, <i>Pariah</i> marks a paradigm shift, but not the most radical, given that now the group is under the direction (though not always creative control) of Merc's younger brother Parcs Dowle. This is also the first album that MD works with the Reverend Vidal Wynan, a childhood friend of Jeremiah's and, at the ripe age of 23, a fully ordained Unitarian minister. Together, Wynan and the returning Timothy Sessions, produce, mix, and engineer <i>Pariah</i>. Sessions guests on piano, and Vidal is featured on 3 tracks on piano, violin, and cello. He also enhances the nearly-subliminal tape loops and effects throughout the album. In a nod to the past, there is a “honky-tonk/ country-rock” tune found here, “Hard Days Ahead”, with an infectious melody sung by none other than the departing Lacey Corbensen (who was invited to stay but was beset by overwhelming personal issues), with back-up vocals by Elizabeth “Betsy” Hoxworth-Palmer and punk vagabond Jim Natchey. Jareth, now out of the band, and choosing not to join its latest incarnation, nonetheless appears on a heated shred session with new lead guitarist (also mandolin, sitar, toy koto) Koro Takamatsu on “Exodus Exigency”, a sessential head trip for guitar freaks. </span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Besides 26 year old newcomer Koro, the debut 'Mercyless Dogg' lineup is familiar: Parcs Dowle, drums, percussion; Jeremiah Thorne, keys, vocals; Convy Lee Sutch, bass, co-lead vocals; and the much-missed Dietrich Palmer on co-lead vocals and rhythm guitar. “Six String Ninja” showcases Koro's solo prowess, and “Pariah” is the 'epic' of the album, with Takamatsu and Thorne co-writing a tale of apocalyptic grandeur with guests Wynan and Sessions. Wynan contributes the biblical-flavored lyrics (worry not, Wynan's personal spiritual beliefs are quite subdued and unfailingly poetic). The LP closes with what would become a live staple in years to come: a downbeat existentialist fable, “Meaningless”, surprisingly sprung from the pens of Dowle and Palmer.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">After a lengthy world tour opening for various groups and fraught with behind the scenes intrigues, July 1991 saw the release at last of a new Mercyless Dogg album – </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Sleight of Hand, Slight of Mind</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">. Rev. Vidal Wynan takes his rightful place not only as the band's producer (assisted by Fielding Schmiker) but also as a full-fledged and pivotal member of Mercyless Dogg. The entire five-piece from the prior album returns to join the Reverend. The writing grows more and more introspective and spiritual (though not of a single ideological bent). We're a long way from “Season of the Bitch” now, folks (ironically, as Rev. Vidal and Polly Dagger were longtime foes until her passing). Takamatsu stretches his virtuosity to levels unheard of beyond those of Lloyd-Langton, and Vidal proves himself as able a musician as a producer/ lyricist, covering violin and indeed all strings that make an appearance here – cello, bass, etc. And once again his knob-twiddling produces some eerily and powerful sounds perfectly timed. Standout tracks are “Mantra” (Wynan/ Takamatsu/ Thorne), “Blessed Be” (same writers), “Nazarene” (same), and “Necromancer” (the three plus Convy Lee). Indeed the Takamatsu/ Thorne/ Wynan axis crafts some of the most compelling soundscapes ever found on an MD release.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Sadly, Jeremiah, a co-founding member, left the band for some time after this epochal record. Koro Takamatsu leaves for Japan after the conclusion of the </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Slight of</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Hand</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">... tour. He will return to Hallmark in late 1993 but meet an untimely fate in October of that year. Jeremiah, who had turned himself completely over to the occult, is long gone as an MD member when he is (apparently) slain in early 1994. So what of Mercyless Dogg? In 1993, they immediately find a replacement for Koro – one Dyson Bryles. Dyson was accustomed to being the boss – the cardinal sign in an ever-mutable zodiac of musickal chairs. His aforementioned band Tenebruso offered low-rent talent such as “punk-prep” Jim Natchey and his replacement, “bass god” Regal Demming, as well as the ever loyal Corey Samson on drums. When Corey went off to college, and Dyson had had enough with those he deemed insincere about making it in music, he decided, as he was wont to do, to experiment – this time entailing simply being a member of a band, rather than its driving force. Still, his force certainly reawakened the moribund Dogg. After their losses, the towel was all but thrown in. But Dyson Bryles forged the carelessly tossed rag into an iron gauntlet, and not only lifted it, but did mortal battle donning it (to thoroughly flog a metaphor). Sadly only one document exists of this volatile combination.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Called </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Requiem</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">, and released at long last in 1994, some time after this most special of outfits had run its course, the next Mercyless Dogg record featured MD vets Parcs, CL, and Rev. Vidal, bu it was difficult finding anyone else. Koro was in Japan, Perry and JT deceased, and Jareth hopelessly missing. Vidal called for new blood, and Parcs wooed the disillusioned Bryles away from his own collapsing band. To Sutch's chagrin, his bandmates gave Dyson carte blanche creatively in the band. Bryles ended up writing a lion's share of </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Requiem</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">, and his time honing his punk-prog chops with lesser musicians paid off with Dyson essentially refashioning MD into the beast towards which it had been slouching since Parcs donned his late brother's gauntlet. </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Requiem</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"> was an all-out fusion (no preconceptions of that word please) of punk/ hardcore, prog/ spacerock, sublime melodies, more than a dose of out jazz, a smidgeon of goth-industrial and electronica, and anything else that could possibly fit into that proverbial kit(s)chen sink. From dub to morose balladry to paint-pealing bursts of raw metal, Dogg expelled a joyous noise – and, to this scribe at least – the perfect band and the perfect album, plain and simple. Truthfully, Bryles could not have affected such a game changer were it not for the masterful pair of groundbreaking LPs preceding them – and the prodigal work of Wynan and Takamatsu, overlaid atop the most solid rhythm aggregate (Parcs Dowle and Convy Lee Sutch) ever erected.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">So what is</span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"> Requiem</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">? The finest MD LP? Not quite – too many have vied for that title in recent years. But a handy breakdown should prove illuminating. With Vidal still on strings and subbing for the ill-fated JT on keys, and Parcs ensconced on the drum stool, CL covered the lead vocals and bass more passionately and with more virtuosity than previously hinted at. This left Bryles in charge of all the guitars and some nice backing vocals, as well as playing some small parts on keys originally intended for Jeremiah, notably on notorious atheist Bryles' poignant piano-laden album closer “Requiem in Pascat”, a deeply spiritual reading of Vidal's sorrow over fallen friends. The irony of Bryles' performance is indeed wicked.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Opening with the grindingly heavy “You Cut... I Bleed”, another of CL's bitter love songs which completely ups the ante on Dowle's hardcore percussive assault, co-writer Bryles' tingling riff warps and weaves through CL's serpentine bass line. “Mindworm” is another razor-sharp track, a florid yet brain-blasting cautionary tale regarding psychic vampires. Dowle and Sutch have rarely been tighter. The trio of bone-crunching heaviosity that launches this ultimately serene LP is rounded out with the (some might say) inevitable anthem “Mercyless Dogg”, operating from a blazing Bryles riff and the most foul (in a good way) lines to spew forth from the pen of a Dowle.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">In the now-time-honored MD tradition of expecting the unexpected and turning on the proverbial dime, Wynan and Sutch constructed a DeMille-worthy epic “Tower of Babel”. The two men collaborated on the music and lyrics, which can be seen as much as about the futility of communication in a relationship as about Nimrod's snafu back in that legendary temple. Wynan's violin and Sutch's upright bass break the tune in two, and the low notes, though a struggle to hear on occasion, are expertly wrought. This seques into Sutch's “To Dust”, featuring CL on vocals and acoustic guitar, Bryles also on acoustic guitar (playing lead parts) , Parcs on tasteful cymbals, and Wynan bringing out shivering shades of emotion on a cello. Like Wynan's “Requiem...”, the slow, languid “To Dust” explores Sutch's obsession with the fallen, foes and comrades alike, and could be the group's crowning ballad up to that time. </span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Bryles' major brainchild for the album is “Side 2” (recall those?): a four-part oldschool prog exercise called “Existence”. Bryles wrote the massive suite's at times ponderous lyrics while CL and the Rev polished some of the tuneage. Part 4, “Answers”, is a convoluted finger-picked acoustic piece, with Dyson singing the fragile lyrics (his voice, while not bad, lacks the power and sensitivity of others in the group). Sutch contributes backing vocals, lending strength to the tune. After the aforementioned album closer, the “new Mercyless Dogg”'s fans had plenty of time to digest the new material, with a massive national tour in the offing. Sadly, the cracks around the edges of the Dyson Bryles persona began to gape asunder on the tour, and Convy Lee and Dyson especially became lifelong rivals and eventually all-out enemies.</span><br /><br /><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Requiem </i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">was a hit of sorts, gaining more international distribution than had ever been possible for the group. This was largely due to the cryptic and wealthy tour promoter Vance Paminter, whose family had traditionally been dirt-poor Gossingham mainstays – but there was far more to Parminter than met the eyes. Meantime, Dyson took full credit for the band's success, though in the US they were still a modest cult band – though in Hallmark proper they were rather well received, even though many were turned off by their occult “aura”. Odd for a group comprised of a buddhist (Parcs), a Christian (Vidal), a pagan (CL), and a “fundamentalist atheist” (Bryles).</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Dyson left near the end of the tour, consumed by his success and his various female obsessions. He immediately formed Bleed with Regal Demming and Etienne Rojiczek (and, occasionally, Betsy Hoxworth-Palmer). Sutch had already written the opening song for the next album (to be titled </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Fourth</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"> (after the 4</span><sup style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">th</sup><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"> LP/ CD by Dogg proper). This track, “Retribution”, was Sutch's scorching nod to his rage towards Bryles. Even Vidal was affected by the dark energy that coursed through the band's most ironically successful stint, and Sutch recommended journeyman lead guitarist “Prester John Grey” (who they eventually learned really was benefactor Vance Parminter). Grey had played with some fairly successful bands since his teens in the 60s (notably with shock rocker Desi Decadence) and yet seemingly had no ego re: his accomplishments (the exact opposite of Dyson). Grey wanted to join a band of equals and nurture them to fame. Vidal was overjoyed, so much so that he was not the least bit turned off by John's overtly occult/ left hand path leanings and symbology. Grey had studied with onetime lover Juniper Thoth (“Queen of the Left Hand”) in the early 1960s when both were mere kids. Vidal was very accepting and the whole group dug Prester John (also known as “Presbyter Johannes”). They immediately proceeded to work on </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Fourth</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">, with their lead guitarist once again penning the bulk of the music. But PJG was a calm, measured creator; the tension from the 'Dyson days' was not to be found.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Sutch and Wynan had worked up two tracks together and Grey played on them: both were Christ-oriented lyrically. “Unborn Souls” was a libertarian view of abortion; while “Repent” would close the album, with forgiveness the ultimate virtue (a far cry from Sutch's recent darker material.) The remainder of the album virtually belonged to Grey. Five mighty cosmic tracks in a row (“Celestial Magician”, “Cross of Many Colours”, “In the Pulsing Heart of A Far-Off Nebula”, “Into the Eyes of Abraxas” and “Moonstone” - all covertly autobiographical vignettes concerning Grey's dabblings in Piscean demonology), abetted by the MD vets but largely sculpted by Grey, made the album the most sonically expansive work Dogg had yet produce.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The group immediately began a sell-out tour which reached spots in the world they'd never been before. Unfortunately, Hallmark was locked in the grip of the riotous 'Nihil War' (named for Jens Sebastian aka Nihil, a formidable racist organizer). As an ugly race war went horribly beyond control, the god-like being Vaikuntha, whom most saw as a mere mythical figure, lurked in the Mt. Mosaic area and sent agents to foment chaos across the land. In mid 1995, these horrid events climaxed,and it was stunningly revealed that Grey was an agent of both Nihil and Vaikuntha. He met his end, however, but the band was never really the same, as they had lost far more than Grey.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The greatest tragedy to befall Mercyless Dogg as a result of the Nihil War was the passing in July 1995 of Rev. Vidal Wynan, practically the leader of the group by this time. Vidal was instrumental in exposing his once partner Grey's true nature, but Vidal, it was deemed by Grey and Nihil, simply “knew too much”. A youthful protege of Vidal's, Michelito Mourning, risked his life to save Wynan, but to no avail. Mourning lived; the Reverend was forever gone but had met a heroic end. Prester John Grey paid for his sins in a spectacular death, leaving Mercyless Dogg halved. Until....</span></span><br /><br /><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Part 4. Undying</i><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Karma was smiling on MD that summer despite its losses. Jareth Lloyd-Langton, AKA Transient, returned at long last to the fold and expressed interest in playing the new, more advanced musicks he'd learned in somewhere he called “Omegan space”. He handpicked Parcs and Convy Lee as his rhythm section. Was Mercyless Dogg to be salvaged after all? In any case, the “reborn” Jareth had much to sort out in his new/old life, and much fall-out awaited the citizens of Hallmark. Around March 1996, however, fate convened with the three early Doggs playing together again. And more: the witch and spiritual advisor to the legendary “Compound”, Urania Frabricand, who'd been singing since childhood but lately merely chanted her mystical workings, expressed interest in joining the reformed Dogg. Convy Lee immediately warmed to the idea as did they all. To fill out their sound to "Rev. Vidal levels", she asked if her best friend, Seth McNally, could join alongside her. Parcs mused, “The newest blood... and the eldest. So mote it be!” he chuckled to Urania, whom he took an immediate creative and personal interest in (though it would be some yeras before a short-lived romance bloomed between the two). </span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Urania (eager to immerse herself in the act of creation after being witness to so much destruction by Nihil, who had coerced her into marrying him) was to be Convy Lee's co-lead singer, covering all the songs CL himself didn't sing over the years, with some exceptions. Urania played violin, cello, and synthesizer and could sub for the Reverend's parts with some training. Seth, meanwhile, could sing a few odd tunes left without cover singers. He could play keys and synth and perform JT's parts. Finally, he could play bass as well, but didn't ever do so in MD due to CL's ubiquity. Importantly (to some), Urania and Seth brought a new, youthful look and dark edge to the group, something to distinguish it from the gonzo guitar and heavily-produced sounds of yesteryear...</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The recording of </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Love... Undying</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"> began quickly but numerous delays pushed it on into the months and years. The quasi-mythical Compound and its many adventures interfered time and again. But in January 1997, </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Love... Undying</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"> hit the shelves. In a first, Parcs Dowle was the producer, while Jareth handled those infernal engineer's knobs. The sound startled all who heard it: dense, ultra-modern, mostly dark and high-tech, yet thick with the power and experimentation that always set MD apart. The fifth MD studio affair hits just as hard and out of left field as its first. Its highlights are many: Urania's ritualistic howling on “Priestess”; the deep black industrial pool of “Spinal”; the retro-surrealism of “The Bleeding Tooth”; the unfettered fret bashing of “End of An Age”; the churning maelstrom of “Blood and Iron”; the morose balladry of “Love Undying” and “God's Right Hand (For Vidal)” - truly this was a terminal document for this most expansive of musical aggregates.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">One could continue, and delineate who wrote what to forge such sounds but what matter it anyway? This band had taken its last few years of hardship and hammered itself into a most well-oiled doomsday machine... doomsday with a shred of hope amidst the gloom. The next step to the Mercyless Ones' methodology for world domination amounted to a sequel to the classic </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">All His Glory</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"> – at last, a live album under the Mercyless Dogg moniker. And so came </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Live... Undying&nbsp;</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">(1998), a definitive live document of the band (at least until 2005's </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Renewal</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">) produced by Parcs Dowle and featuring an impeccably chosen slate of material from every phase of MD's career, reaching all the way back to “And Throw My Coffin... Into the Oven” and guilty pleasure “Season of the Bitch” (in a particularly grinding rendition), and alighting on work from each studio offering from the </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Merciless Dog</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"> EP to their latest disc – a glorious snapshot of 13 years of songwriting brilliance. It was gratifying to hear such a re-energized unit revisit choice selections from the band's days with Merc Dowle, as well as restore more recent but no less classic cuts to their repertoire such as “Exodus Exigency”, “Necromancer”, “To Dust”, and “In the Pulsing Heart of A Far-Off Nebula”. The enduring work of Dogg's former members (several of them now passed on), even ones that have fallen from favor such as Grey and Bryles, is well-served by this lineup, and the modernized arrangements of all of the classic MD material is first-rate.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">With the renewed and refreshed lineup in place, the band continued down their current corridors for a time, culminating in a second studio offering, </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Penance</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"> (2000), this time around produced for the first time by Convy Lee, and Jareth back on the mixing/ engineering duties. The band was rarely ever more in total control of their own sound and presentation. The material again is top-notch, with all of the group contributing strong arrangements, from Fabricand's “The Hanged Woman” to the title track/ closer by Sutch. McNally contributes much more to the writing this time around, enjoying incendiary collaborations with Parcs and Lloyd-Langton on tracks such as Cortex”. “Hack”, “Penetrate”, and “Godhead” - all churning goth-industrial-tinged pieces but distinguished by ye olde Dogg eclectic flavoring. “This Ocean of Night” fills the now-requisite 'epic' slot on the record, and melds Urania's soul-stirring vocals and dark as the void lyricism with a moody and elegiac tune by Sutch and Lloyd-Langton, who by now border on the telepathic in their sonic interplay.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The most interesting and controversial (yet most musically conventional) track on </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Penance</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"> is “Miss Eunice Dress”, also the single from the album and the first MD track in some time to be penned by someone not in the band. Though Convy Lee produced and arranged the tune, the music and lyrics were devised by band associate (and longtime “familiar” of Urania in her ritual magick) Simon Boom. “Miss Eunice Drees” became Dogg's first modest hit single in some time. And, sadly, here began a schism within the group that dragged on nearly half a decade and divided longtime fans as well (though this scribe remained loyal and attempted to sift method from madness).</span><br /><br />“<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Miss Eunice..” was a demo recorded by Boom on an old stolen 4-track. Simon plays guitar and autoharp and sings and adds a bit of percussion. Simon sought out mysterious tunesmith Leo Rosegrave to produce it under his “Graves” moniker (the name Leo used for his own musical projects). Seems as though ONUS' own radical journalist was a longtime musician with his own demo, simply called <i>Graves</i>, recorded in the late 90s in Seattle WA, floating about. <i>Graves</i>featured a stirring track, “Debris”, that made its way into Simon's hands in 1999 (and Convy Lee's soon after, seemingly coincidentally). “Debris” inspired Simon, at a crossroads in his life after his heart was broken by the aforementioned Miss Drees (indeed,a real personage), to ply his trade at his own low key stark punk balladry – a long time avocation of his. Convy Lee was knocked out by Graves as well, and when Simon played “Miss Eunice Drees” for CL, Sutch offered to record and produce (and play back-up on) a <i>Graves</i>-esque demo for Simon as well.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">CL's side project with Simon was slowing down completion of </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Penance</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">, and so CL offered Parcs the choice for Dogg to essentially be Simon's backing band on “Miss Eunice...” and include the track, with Simon on lead vocals, on </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Penance</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">. Parcs reluctantly agreed, though was admittedly a fan of the tune. Dogg's take on “Drees” featured Parcs on spare percussion, CL on bass and backing vocals, Urania on violin and backing vocals, Seth on piano, and Jareth on acoustic guitar and electric autoharp. Parcs, ever the skeptic at first, enjoyed the change of pace (and good reception for the song), and saw another new vein the group might mine on the already planned follow-up CD.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>Part 5. Terminal Reality....</i></span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Urania Fabricand left the band for good in 2001 to concentrate on her magick and leadership at the Compound. But the most jaw-dropping surprise for the band came in 2002, when Jeremiah Thorne officially returned from the dead – a tale beyond the purview of this article; see <i>Flicker Street Dispatch</i> hack Barry Keller's 2007 unauthorized bio of JT and the Thornes, <i>Every Rose...</i> [get it??]. JT astonishingly &nbsp;asked to return after a decade to the band of his youth. Though there was still some ill will between JT and Jareth and CL, things were beginning to work themselves out, and the reborn Thorne was indeed in a better place than when he met his maker last (ten years in something called a “Soul Jar” might do that to a person). Seth was amicably let go in favor of JT on keys and synth, and soon popped up in Hallmark cult band Soul Obscured, a truly original outfit struggling for larger success and hoping to gig with Dogg and build a more concrete following after years of plying the boards. Dogg, however, was met with one personal or professional crisis after another in 2002, and soon put the band on indefinite hiatus. </span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Simon, meanwhile, was still writing and playing, and Convy Lee enjoyed working with him in his small amount of downtime between Compound drama and intense difficulties on the romantic front, largely spawned by the return to his life of his former lovers - &nbsp;sisters (and, yes, first cousins of yours truly), Ruby and Garnet Pace. Unfortunately he was already been involved with the formidable femme vigilante Cotton Suede, so things were a bit convoluted. CL simply, as always, vented through his music, penning new lyrics and skeletal tunes such as “Asunder” and “Black in Tooth and Claw” and shepherding Boom compositions “Amenity” and “The Need”, both cathartic tunes for the troubled Boom, who claimed he was finally over his disastrous pursual of his twisted muse, Eunice Drees (who sued to no avail to censor the song named for her).</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">In 2003, Parcs began negotiating plans for a definitive MD boxed set to celebrate 15 years of Mercyless Dogg. This brought him and Jareth back together to work on track selection and marketing plans (such as a “comeback” album and world tour). Awkwardly, though, this came as Parcs and Jeremiah had begun playing together again and jamming with the 20 year old Jiri Takamatsu, prodigal daughter of original Dogg member, the late guitar wunderkind Koro Takamatsu. Jiri was no less precociously formidable as her ill-fated father, and the threesome's jams had already yielded an astonishing demo track, “Bathed in Absinthe”. Jiri also was possessed of a powerful singing voice of intimidating range. Jareth asked Parcs if this heralded a new band a-forming or simply yet another incarnation of Dogg. Parcs swiftly decided the new material being worked up with Kiri and JT would belong to an aforementioned comeback recording for MD. Jareth and JT began playing together again, in preparation for a proper reunion tour supporting the projected boxed set and new album. They soon wrote a magnum opus together entitled “Distant Spheres”, and the bad feelings and decade apart seemed to just melt away.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Meanwhile, Jiri brought in her girlfriend, Eden Verity, who was a singer, string player, and techno whiz in her own right. Eden was soon assigned Urania's vocal parts and Vidal's string parts for the tour and quickly became acclimated to the band. CL came to the group with Simon and asked if there was a place for them both in all the new activity. Jeremiah loved Boom's morose balladry and Sutch felt the band might be a salvation of sorts for the mentally erratic Boom. Parcs was skeptical about Simon, but relented on one condition – Parcs be allowed to bring in yet another new member as well and tour as a “big band” - an 8-piece (something never even considered by MD in the past). The group trusted their ostensible leader's instincts and Parc's good friend Moxon Flay aka 'DJ Flay' or simply 'MOX', a hip-hop, techno, and dub specialist, became the latest Dogg and the band's new producer and engineer.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Finally, in January 2004, the multi-disc (with DVDs) boxed set, called simply <i>Mercyless Dogg</i> went on sale and became the band's strongest seller to date. MOX and Parcs began planning a “mega-megaton tour” and put the finishing touches on the new record, released three months later and dubbed </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Distant Spheres </i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">– the seventh Mercyless Dogg studio offering since 1990. “Euphony” with lyrics by Thorne, music by Thorne and Verity, and vocals by both, became a huge alternative hit, and MOX and Eden worked out a supple dance remix. The group combined all of their newly-minted forces on “Loop Gurus I”, a lengthy experimental noize collage that found MD remaining poised on the cutting edge they'd ridden for so many years. Only Simon Boom was anxious about the band's new prospects. He was a bit nervous playing in front of such huge crowds, preferring intimate settings and material (indeed, he seemed lost at times amid the more complex material). Parcs issued CL a harsh rebuke that Sutch could not “carry” Boom; Boom had to give 100% to the band or he was out.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">It was under these both inspiring and dispiriting circumstances that an ensuing live album/ video, </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Renewal</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">, was recorded, and released in 2005. While a most worthy document, it shows a band lacking cohesion with petty clashes festerring beneath the music, even as the title (MOX's idea) was an attempt at a statement of creative rebirth and a bright new era. Jareth disagreed strongly and left the group immediately after the tour. Though adequately challenged musically, he felt the preponderance of personalities wasn't quite gelling. He felt MOX was a bit overbearing, and though he loved him as a friend, had his own doubts about Simon, who Parcs finally fired in late 2005. Eden also decides to decamp, but Jiri persuaded her to stay for the time being. They begin recording an album of just the two of them as time allowed.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">By early 2006, as the band was beset by personal issues even as they enjoyed their greatest commercial success, Parcs's power struggle with Flay came to a head and Moxon is shown the door. At this juncture, Parcs, CL, JT, Eden, and Jiri convene and decide to resume writing and touring. Later in the year, Jareth Lloyd-Langton comes to terms with the smaller, more focused unit and agrees to remain for the foreseeable future. This spurs a flurry of activity on the writing and recording fronts. Parcs asks each of the 6 members (including himself) to bring in one whole finished tune apiece and the band would perform on it, then jam together until they arrive at a lengthy group composition. All are amenable to this, as the band still feels cohesive yet all are able to stretch out in various directions and have time to deal with the plethora of personal crises being hurled at them.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Jareth contributes a poignant instrumental “Valentina”, dedicated to his young daughter, on which he duets on guitar and various stringed instruments with Jiri.. “The Soul Jar: A Rumination on -----”, by Thorne, is a sonic attempt to capture the sensations experienced by Jeremiah in his years between life and death. It is utterly abstract and frighteningly evocative. “Roads” by Sutch is the inevitable but ever-welcome CL contemplative heavy soul ballad. Its R &amp; B existentialism keeps pace with his finest work, and Jareth contributes an atmospheric solo . “A Distant Pulse” by Dowle finds Parcs experimenting with various percussion instruments with a reliance on mood. Eden and Jeremiah play off of Park's somber bells and metallic beats to great effect. “Loop Gurus III” is continuing the loop and tape effect experiments initiated by Eden when she first signed up with Dogg. Simultaneously euphonious and cacophonous, Eden shows off her electronic dexterity and makes one wonder just how germane MOX was to MD with Eden around. “Into the Pale Guts of Hell” is a shrieking dervish of a death metal number written by Jiri. She, Jareth, and Convy Lee take turns abusing their axes while devilish moogs and theremins bubble and wail up to the surface and Parcs pounds with breathtaking clockwork double bass. For the record, Jiri is the shrieker here, and she is chilling in her riff on the chaos of the infernal. Finally, the band's joint composition, which is to be the title track of the album, “In Terminal Reality”, is another lengthy prog meditation on inner and outer space. Jareth taps into many of his more interesting effects here, replicating that most oblique of modern scientific buzzwords: “Omegan space”.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Skip ahead several months: the Hallmark area is in the fearsome grip of the out of control 'Austerity Killings', which have been ongoing since 2005. Two years on, they have only escalated. Police Commissioner Nathan Cloud (whose successor Keats Murray [a lifelong friend of Jeremiah Thorne's] and Captain of Detectives, Jann Kesh, were both early casualties) is going in too many directions at once according to most and not narrowing the investigation. Jeremiah's own wife, Dorian Roeg Thorne, mother of his young child, Alec, is also a recent victim. Work on the latest Mercyless Dogg album is complete and released in the summer of 2007. The band tours sparingly on a double headlining tour with Soul Obscured (who've begun to break on the national level after far too long). JT is obsessed with the killings and is occasionally replaced live with ex-member Seth McNally on keyboards.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">And so,</span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"> In Terminal Reality</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"> is the latest MD platter and slouches toward the classic. It in some ways reflects the pall over the band, a snapshot of the zeitgeist. Amazingly, it fares poorly save among the faithful. Which is just as well, as the emotional fatigue experienced by the band and the utter burn out suffered after the “mega-mega” touring is catching up a bit with the group, who have stated time and again that they are only in it for the creativity, not the profits, and that, as the saying goes, when it's no longer fun, it will finally be over.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Two summers on, much misery and despair have enveloped the band as loved ones continue to be targeted in the Austerity Killings. The positive news is that it looks as though the true killer(s) have been found and are close to being routed. The horrifying fallout has affected Mercyless Dogg more directly than ever. After recording on and off with an eye towards a new album, </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Threshold</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">, to be released in 2010 (this is subject to change), Jeremiah finally departed Dogg seemingly for good to devote himself entirely to his occult activities and to seek justice for the deaths of his wife and loved ones. He has currently paired off with his former mother-in-law, sorceress Juniper Thoth, in both a mistress-disciple and interpersonal relationship. They feel close to locating the man now believed responsible for the killings: one Colonel Absalom Thirteen, a high ranking agent with perenially paranoid paramilitary watchdogs REACT. The inscrutable Thirteen visited tragedy directly unto the house of Dogg this past year when he raped and brutalized Jiri Takamatsu, which left her impregnated with a madman's child. In November 2008, she gave birth to a son Noah Verity Takamatsu, whom she and Eden (now wed) will raise together. Their 'solo' album is in post-production as of this writing, and they have both performed much of the next MD album. Both state this is for their continued sanity as much as it feeds their joint muse.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Seth McNally has replaced Jeremiah in Mercyless Dogg, and the band continues to fiddle with the nearly-finished product. With Jareth and Convy Lee both holding great stakes in solving the Austerity killings, again, much of their musical output has been sidelined indefinitely. This writer, for what little it's worth, will certainly celebrate this spawn of pain and loss, </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Threshold</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">, and eagerly await its birthing wails and cries – especially as it may still forever the voice of a musical aggregate as necessary to me as oxygen – the immortal, inimitable, seminal rock band of our times – Mercyless Dogg.</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>Sam Pace would like to thank Mercyless Dogg for their cooperation in preparing this article, especially under such intense duress. He would also like to naturally thank all MD members of all incarnations – past, present, living, and dead, for forging a most joyous noise that will echo unto infinity.</i></span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>(Below) Impressionistic sketches of various members by ONUS illustrator Inez van den Camp! Go Inez!</i></span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kWNFPZAuBUQ/VOVmPM2Jp2I/AAAAAAAAC9c/4ucvZqX1dYI/s1600/Convy%2BLee%2BSutch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kWNFPZAuBUQ/VOVmPM2Jp2I/AAAAAAAAC9c/4ucvZqX1dYI/s1600/Convy%2BLee%2BSutch.jpg" height="200" width="105" /></a><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-H2AnJxF2Ob8/VOVmKlzH4sI/AAAAAAAAC9U/THWK04QuPcA/s1600/Convy%2BLee%2BSutch%2B%26%2BSimon%2BBoom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-H2AnJxF2Ob8/VOVmKlzH4sI/AAAAAAAAC9U/THWK04QuPcA/s1600/Convy%2BLee%2BSutch%2B%26%2BSimon%2BBoom.jpg" height="200" width="135" /></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8Dw_RLoU02s/VOVmSalrMrI/AAAAAAAAC9k/fuL_cP3SGkg/s1600/Convy%2BLee%2BSutch%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8Dw_RLoU02s/VOVmSalrMrI/AAAAAAAAC9k/fuL_cP3SGkg/s1600/Convy%2BLee%2BSutch%2B2.jpg" height="200" width="183" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XcSqv-g-VNA/VOVmoOxQJfI/AAAAAAAAC98/Rawb2Yxo7Ys/s1600/Transient%2B(Jareth%2BLloyd-Langton).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XcSqv-g-VNA/VOVmoOxQJfI/AAAAAAAAC98/Rawb2Yxo7Ys/s1600/Transient%2B(Jareth%2BLloyd-Langton).jpg" height="182" width="200" /></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-C3saQierfrM/VOVmdDCQUmI/AAAAAAAAC9s/r98EuPalz64/s1600/Prester%2BJohn%2BGrey%2BII%2B(Johannes%2BGedd).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-C3saQierfrM/VOVmdDCQUmI/AAAAAAAAC9s/r98EuPalz64/s1600/Prester%2BJohn%2BGrey%2BII%2B(Johannes%2BGedd).jpg" height="200" width="157" /></a><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UTpmTD0Bn0Q/VOVmtclH0BI/AAAAAAAAC-E/BcKVPvVk_a4/s1600/Urania%2BFabricand.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UTpmTD0Bn0Q/VOVmtclH0BI/AAAAAAAAC-E/BcKVPvVk_a4/s1600/Urania%2BFabricand.jpg" height="200" width="143" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZwgdV_dhng8/VOVmkAKYLJI/AAAAAAAAC90/HI2KdEvBZbI/s1600/Simon%2BBoom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZwgdV_dhng8/VOVmkAKYLJI/AAAAAAAAC90/HI2KdEvBZbI/s1600/Simon%2BBoom.jpg" height="200" width="145" /></a></div><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Uvu041YjF_c/VOVm6WsQCyI/AAAAAAAAC-M/b2gF6IudEdw/s1600/Convy%2BLee%2BSutch%2C%2BDyson%2BBryles%2C%2BImmegail%2BSalinger.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Uvu041YjF_c/VOVm6WsQCyI/AAAAAAAAC-M/b2gF6IudEdw/s1600/Convy%2BLee%2BSutch%2C%2BDyson%2BBryles%2C%2BImmegail%2BSalinger.jpg" height="189" width="200" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Copyright 2009 Samuel Pace.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Art Copyright 2009 Inez van den Camp.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Gabriola, fantasy;"><span style="font-size: 15pt;"><b>Published by Samuel Pace, Head Writer</b></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Gabriola, fantasy;"><span style="font-size: 15pt;"><b>Edited by Aimee Ackler, Asst. Head Writer</b></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Gabriola, fantasy;"><span style="font-size: 15pt;"><b>Production Design: Pace, Ackler, and Connie Canova</b></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Gabriola, fantasy;"><span style="font-size: 15pt;"><b>Typography: Connie Canova</b></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Gabriola, fantasy;"><span style="font-size: 15pt;"><b>Leo Rosegrave, Feature writer, interviews (Clive Dharma), Film editor, editorial assist</b></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Gabriola, fantasy;"><span style="font-size: 15pt;"><b>Sam Pace, head writer, music writer, editorial pain in the rear</b></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Gabriola, fantasy;"><span style="font-size: 15pt;"><b>Aimee Ackler, Music editor, book reviews</b></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Gabriola, fantasy;"><span style="font-size: 15pt;"><b>Carina Canova, Comix reviews, lifestyles and geekdom diva</b></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Gabriola, fantasy;"><span style="font-size: 15pt;"><b>Milton Childers, Zine. E-zine, movie, and book reviews (Gutted, Fecal Prank, Burning Pages)</b></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Gabriola, fantasy;"><span style="font-size: 15pt;"><b>Bryan Sykorsky Snypes, Video and book reviews, interviews (Vaulka Eldritch)</b></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Gabriola, fantasy;"><span style="font-size: 15pt;"><b>John Bandicott, commentary, “Where the Hippies Kill the Law”</b></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Gabriola, fantasy;"><span style="font-size: 15pt;"><b>Inez van den Camp, Art reviews, illustrations, cover illo “20 Years On...Brainpan Off”</b></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Gabriola, fantasy;"><span style="font-size: 15pt;"><b>June Kim Liao, Writer, True Dragon, occasional martial arts column</b></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Gabriola, fantasy;"><span style="font-size: 15pt;"><b>Ruby Pace – additional commentary, “Pox on Thee”</b></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Gabriola, fantasy;"><span style="font-size: 15pt;"><b>Self-Published bi-annually by Onus Communications Copyright 2009</b></span></span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>FLICKER STREET, ONUS Magazine, Mercyless Dogg, entire contents of article, and all characters Copyright 2015 George Henry Smathers Jr.</b></span>Henry Coverthttps://plus.google.com/103990383640616339933noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3852574899003991711.post-22266369001506740812014-09-02T21:34:00.000-07:002014-09-03T03:27:28.799-07:00555 Films That Freak Me Out<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Once more into the breach, I suppose. Below are 555 films, honed down from a list of my 750 all-time favourite films that I had intended to post. There are many changes from previous such lists, but after much brain-wracking, I suppose these films, as close to being in order as possible, indeed represent those movies I absolutely rate the highest in my personal pantheon. All are indelibly etched onto my brainpan - regardless of genre, length, or what some might deem "good taste".</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><br /></span><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1. 2046 (Wong Kar-wai, 2004)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">2. Dawn of the Dead (George Romero, 1978) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">3. X-Men (Bryan Singer, 2000)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">4. Oldboy (Park chan-wook, 2003)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">5. Natural Born Killers (Oliver Stone, 1994)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">6. Superfly (Gordon Parks Jr., 1972)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">7. Django (Sergio Corbucci, 1966)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">8. Tristana (Luis Bunuel, 1970) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">9. Orpheus (Jean Cocteau, 1950)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">10. Sweet Movie (Dusan Makavejev, 1974) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">11. The Great Silence (Sergio Corbucci, 1968)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">12. The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (Peter Greenaway, 1989)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">13. Last Tango in Paris (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1972)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">14. Possession (Andrzej Zulawski, 1981)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">15. Scorpio Rising (Kenneth Anger, 1964)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">16. Night of the Living Dead (George Romero, 1968)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">17. The Killer (John Woo, 1989)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">18. Cutter's Way (Ivan Passer, 1981)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">19. Bad Timing (Nicolas Roeg, 1980)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">20. Cannibal Apocalypse (Antonio Margheriti, 1980)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">21. The Idiot (Akira Kurosawa, 1951) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">22. The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1968)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">23. Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (Russ Meyer, 1970)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">24. Vivre sa Vie (Jean-Luc Godard, 1962)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">25. Chasing Amy (Kevin Smith, 1997)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">26. Holy Mountain (Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1973)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">27. </span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">X2: X-Men United (Bryan Singer, 2003)</span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">28. Judex (Louis Feuillade, 1917)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">29. Ganja &amp; Hess (Bill Gunn, 1973)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">30. Drugstore Cowboy (Gus van Sant, 1989) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">31. Planet of the Apes (Franklin J. Schaffner, 1968)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">32. El Topo (Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1970)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">33. Aguirre: The Wrath of God (Werner Herzog, 1972)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">34. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Tobe Hooper, 1974)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">35. Spider-Man (Sam Raimi, 2002)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">36. The Crying Game (Neil Jordan, 1992)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">37. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (David Lynch (1992)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">38. Blue Collar (Paul Schrader, 1978)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">39. Messiah of Evil (Willard Huych, 1973)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">40. Querelle (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1982)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">41. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1974)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">42. Across 110<sup>th</sup>Street (Barry Shear, 1972)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">43. Dead Ringers (David Cronenberg, 1988)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">44. Mask (Peter Bogdanovich, 1985) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">45. Taxi Driver (Martin Scorcese, 1976)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">46. Hulk (Ang Lee, 2003)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">47. The Spook Who Sat by the Door (Ivan Dixon, 1973)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">48. Heavy Traffic (Ralph Bakshi, 1973)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">49. The Face of Another (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1966)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">50. The Fly (David Cronenberg, (1986)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">51. The Piano (Jane Campion, 1993)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">52. A Housekeeper (Claude Berri, 2002)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">53. Performance (Nicolas Roeg and Donald Cammell, 1970)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">54. Thief (Michael Mann, 1981)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">55. The Dead Zone (David Cronenberg, 1983)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">56. Candyman (Bernard Rose, 1992)&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">57. Black Jesus (Valerio Zurlini, 1968)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">58. Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (J. Lee Thompson, 1972)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">59. The Best Years of Our Lives (William Wyler, 1946)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">60. The Beyond (Lucio Fulci, 1981)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">61. 1984 (Michael Radford, 1984)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">62. Lolita (Stanley Kubrick, 1962)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">63. Peeping Tom (Michael Powell, 1960)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">64. Alucarda (Juan Lopez Moctezuma, 1977) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">65. Fritz the Cat (Ralph Bakshi, 1972)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">66. Truck Turner (Jonathan Kaplan, 1974)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">67. Spider-Man 2 (Sam Raimi, 2004)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">68. Secretary (Steven Shainberg, 2002)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">69. The Fountain (Darren Aaronofsky, 2006) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">70. The Last Man on Earth (Ubaldo Ragona, 1964)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">71. The Cat O'Nine Tails (Dario Argento, 1971)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">72. WR: Mysteries of the Organism (Dusan Makavejev, 1971) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">73. Hit Man (George Armitage, 1972)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">74. Lord Love a Duck (George Axelrod, 1966) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">75. Soylent Green (Richard Fleischer, 1973)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">76. Heat (Michael Mann, 1995) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">77. Day of the Dead (George Romero,1985)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">78. Ms. 45 (Abel Ferrara, 1981)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">79. The Day the Earth Stood Still (Robert Wise, 1951)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">80. Black Caesar (Larry Cohen, 1973)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">81. Hell Up in Harlem (Larry Cohen, 1973)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">82. Chungking Express (Wong Kar-wai, 1994)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">83. In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-wai, 2000)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">84. Thriller – A Cruel Picture (Bo Arne Vibenius, 1973)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">85. Siegfried (Fritz Lang, 1924)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">86. Kriemhild's Revenge (Fritz Lang, 1924)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">87. Hard Boiled (John Woo, 1992)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">88. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Jim Sharman, 1975)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">89. Faster Pussycat... Kill! Kill! (Russ Meyer, 1965)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">90. INLAND EMPIRE (David Lynch, 2006)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">91. The Elephant Man (David Lynch, 1980)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">92. Lady Snowblood (Toshiya Fujita, 1973)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">93. Fitzcarraldo (Werner Herzog, 1982)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">94. Welcome Home Brother Charles (Jamaa Fanaka, 1975)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">95. Alphaville (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">96. Ghost World (Terry Zwigoff, 2001) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">97. The Duellists (Ridley Scott, 1977)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">98. Network (Sidney Lumet, 1976)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">99. Bully (Larry Clark, 2001)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">100. The Devil in Miss Jones (Gerard Damiano, 1973)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">101. Flash Gordon (Mike Hodges, 1980)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">102. Keoma (Enzo Castellari, 1976)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">103. The Big Bird Cage (Jack Hill, 1972)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">104. The World of Suzie Wong (Richard Quine, 1960)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">105. Freeway (Matthew Bright, 1996) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">106. Deadbeat at Dawn (Jim Van Bebber, 1988) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">107. Foxy Brown (Jack Hill, 1974)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">108. Minnie and Moskowitz (John Cassavettes, 1971)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">109. Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">110. Scarface (Brian DePalma, 1983)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">111. The Mack (Michael Campus, 1973) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">112. Four of the Apocalypse (Lucio Fulci, 1975)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">113. Belle du Jour (Luis Bunuel, 1967)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">114. Immortal (ad vitam) (Enki Bilal, 2004)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">115. Morvern Callar (Lynne Ramsey, 2002)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">116. American Movie (Chris Smith, 1999)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">117. Brotherhood of the Wolf (Christophe Gans, 2001)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">118. Martin (George A Romero, 1976)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">119. Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">120. Sid and Nancy (Alex Cox, 1986)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">121. M Butterfly (David Cronenberg, 1993)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">122. Videodrome (David Cronenberg, 1983)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">123. Contempt (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">124. Monster (Patty Jenkins, 2003) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">125. High and Low (Akira Kurosawa, 1963)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">126. Liquid Sky (Slava Tsukerman, 1982)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">127. Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (Jamoril Jires, 1970)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">128. Candy (Christian Marquand, 1968)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">129. Lucifer Rising (Kenneth Anger, 1972)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">130. Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa, 1950)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">131. The Night Porter (Liliana Cavani, 1974)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">132. A Dangerous Game (Abel Ferrera, 1993)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">133. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (Sam Peckinpah, 1974)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">134. Putney Swope (Robert Downey, Sr., 1969)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">135. Southern Comfort (Walter Hill, 1981)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">136. Clerks II (Kevin Smith, 2006)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">137. Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart At the River Styx (Kenji Misumi, 1972) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">138. American Pop (Ralph Bakshi, 1981) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">139. Once Were Warriors (Lee Tamahori, 1994)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">140. Santa Sangre (Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1989)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">141. Z (Costa-Gavras, 1969)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">142. The Whip and the Body (Mario Bava, 1963)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">143. Towers Open Fire (Antony Balch, 1963)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">144. Out of the Blue (Dennis Hopper, 1980)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">145. Watermelon Man (Melvin Van Peebles, 1970) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">146. L'Age D'Or (Luis Bunuel, 1930)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">147. Get Carter (Mike)Hodges, 1971)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">148. Coffy (Jack Hill, 1973)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">149. Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages (Benjamin Christensen, 1922)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">150.The Omega Man (Boris Sagal, 1971) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">151. Giants and Toys (Yasuzo Masumura, 1958)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">152. Freaks (Tod Browning, 1932)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">153. X-Men: The Last Stand (Brett Ratner, 2006)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">154. American Splendor (Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, 2003)&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">155. Blueberry (Jan Kounen , 2004)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">156. Carlito's Way (Brian DePalma, 1993)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">157. Blow Out (Brian DePalma, 1981)&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">158. King of New York (Abel Ferrera, 1990)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">159. Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1999) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">160. Week End (Jean-Luc Godard, 1967)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">161. Fantastic Planet (Rene Laloux, 1973)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">162. The Bad Sleep Well (Akira Kurosawa, 1960)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">163. Once Upon A Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">164. Fingers (James Toback, 1978)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">165. The Caveman's Valentine (Kasi Lemmons, 2001)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">166. Ikiru (Akira Kurosawa, 1952)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">167. A Better Tomorrow (John Woo, 1986)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">168. A Better Tomorrow II (John Woo, 1987)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">169. Nadja (Michael Almereyda, 1994) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">170. Boogie Nights (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1997)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">171. The Deer Hunter (Michael Cimino, 1978)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">172. Moll Flanders (Pen Densham, 1996)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">173. Nashville (Robert Altman, 1975)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">174. The Moderns (Alan Rudolph, 1988)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">175. Flavia the Heretic (Gianfranco Mingozzi, 1974)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">175. Serpico (Sidney Lumet, 1973)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">176. Wolfen (Michael Wadleigh, 1981)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">177. Temptation of A Monk (Clara Law, 1993)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">178. Dust Devil (Richard Stanley, 1992)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">179. Beneath the Planet of the Apes (Ted Post, 1970)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">180. Escape from the Planet of the Apes (Don Taylor, 1971)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">181. The Wrestler (Darren Aronofsky, 2008)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">182. Tokyo Drifter (Seijun Suzuki, 1966)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">183. Violent City (Sergio Sollima, 1970)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">184. Revolver (Sergio Sollima, 1973) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">185. A Face in the Crowd (Elia Kazan, 1957)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">186. Afraid to Die (Yasuzo Masumura, 1960)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">187. Dolemite (D'Urville Martin, 1975)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">188. Sweet Sweetback's Baadassss Song (Melvin Van Peebles, 1971) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">189. Oedipus Rex (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1967)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">190. Planet of the Vampires (Mario Bava, 1965)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">191. Teorema (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1968)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">192. The Cut-Ups (Antony Balch, 1966)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">193. Seconds (John Frankenheimer, 1966) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">194. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee, 2000)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">195. The Ninth Configuration (William Peter Blatty, 1980)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">196. Castle of Blood (Antonio Margheriti, 1963) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">197. King of Comedy (Martin Scorcese, 1982) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">198. Branded to Kill (Seijun Suzuki, 1967)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">199. Mallrats (Kevin Smith, 1995)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">200. Cannibal Holocaust (Ruggero Deodato, 1980)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">201. Ashes of Time Redux (Wong Kar-wai, 1994)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">202. The Hand (Oliver Stone, 1981)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">203. Last Year at Marienbad (Alain Resnais, 1961)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">204. Antichrist (Lars von Trier, 2009)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">205. Manson (Robert Hendrickson, 1973)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">206. Sword of Doom (Kihachi Okamoto, 1966)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">207. The Mechanic (Michael Winner, 1972)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">208. Death Wish (Michael Winner, 1974)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">209. Blind Beast (Yasuzo Masumura, 1969) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">210. High Plains Drifter (Clint Eastwood, 1973)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">211. Lady Vengeance (Park Chan-wook, 2005)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">212. It's Alive (Larry Cohen, 1974)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">213. Crimes of Passion (Ken Russell, 1984)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">214. The Thing (John Carpenter, 1982)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">215. They Live (John Carpenter, 1988)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">216. God Told Me To (Larry Cohen, 1976)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">217. Suicide Club (Shion Sono, 2001)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">218. JFK (Oliver Stone, 1991)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">219. Wuthering Heights (Robert Fuest, 1970) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">210. Sonatine (Takeshi Kitano, 1993) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">221. Fay Grim (Hal Hartley, 2006)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">222. Street Smart (Jerry Schatzberg, 1987)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">223. The Gospel According to St. Matthew (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1964)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">224. The People vs Larry Flynt (Milos Forman, 1996) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">225. Ravenous (Antonia Bird, 1999)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">226. Charly (Ralph Nelson, 1968)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">227. Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (Hugh Hudson, 1984)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">228. Incubus (Leslie Stevens, 1966)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">229. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgoisie (Luis Bunuel, 1972) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">230. Goodbye Uncle Tom (Gualtiero Jacopetti, Franco Prosperi, 1971)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">231. Se7en (David Fincher, 1995)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">232. Lenny (Bob Fosse, 1974) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">233. Venus in Furs (Jess Franco, 1969)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">234. Brainstorm (Douglas Trumbull, 1983)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">235. Companeros (Sergio Corbucci, 1970)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">236. Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 1954)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">237. Donkey Skin (Jacques Demy, 1970)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">238. Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">239. Blood and Black Lace (Mario Bava, 1964) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">240. Sex and Fury (Noribumi Suzuki, 1973)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">241. Punk in London (Wolfgang Buld, 1977)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">242. Point Blank (John Boorman, 1967)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">243. The Howling (Joe Dante, 1981)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">244. The One-Armed Swordsman (Chang Cheh, 1967)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">245. RoGoPaG (Roberto Rossellini, Jean-Luc Godard, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Ugo Gregoretti, 1963)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">246. Today We Kill... Tomorrow We Die! (Tonino Cervi, 1968)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">247. Happiness of the Katakuris (Takashi Miike, 2001)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">248. Blacula (William Crain, 1972)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">249. The Devils (Ken Russell, 1971)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">250. Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (Kevin Smith, 2001)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">251. Heathers (Michael Lehmann, 1988)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">252. Audition (Takashi Miike, 1999)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">253. Last Cannibal World (Ruggero Deodato, 1977) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">254. Coonskin (Ralph Bakshi, 1975)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">255. Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">256. The Panic in Needle Park (Jerry Schatzberg, 1971)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">257. Pretty Baby (Louis Malle, 1978)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">258. The Straight Story (David Lynch, 1999)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">259. Cannibal Man (Eloy de la Iglesia, 1973) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">260. The Heroic Trio (Johnnie To, 1993)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">261. Woman in the Dunes (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1964)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">262. Hong Kong 1941 (Po-Chih Leong, 1984) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">263. Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">264.</span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Dracula:</span> <span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Sovereign</span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">of the Damned (Minoru Okazaki, 1980)</span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">265. Don't Torture A Duckling (Lucio Fulci, 1972)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">266. Dark Passage (Delmer Daves, 1947)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">267.Fahrenheit 451 (Francois Truffaut, 1966)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">268. Spider-Man 3 (Sam Raimi, 2007)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">269. The Witches (Mauro Bolognini, Vittorio De Sica, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Franco Rossi, Luchino Visconti, 1969)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">270. The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy, 1973)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">271. Unbreakable (M Night Shyamalan, 2000)<br />272. The Lathe of Heaven (Fred Barzyk, David R. Loxton, 1980)4</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">273. Red (Lucky McKee, Trygve Allister Diesen, 2008)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">274. Harakiri (Masaki Kobayashi, 1962)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">275. Clerks (Kevin Smith, 1994) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">276. Succubus (Jess Franco, 1967)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">277. The Crow (Alex Proyas, 1994)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">278. City of the Living Dead (Lucio Fulci, 1980) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">270. Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter (Yasuharu Hasebe, 1970)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">280. The Last House on Dead End Street (Roger Watkins, 1977)<br />281. Jackie Brown (Quentin Tarantino, 1997) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">282. Meet the Feebles (Peter Jackson, 1989)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">283. The Black Cat (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1934)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">284. Lisa and the Devil (Mario Bava, 1973)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">285. Carnival of Souls (Herk Harvey, 1962)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">286. Black Test Car (Yasuzo Masumura, 1962)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">287. Masculin Feminin (Jean-Luc Godard, 1966)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">288. A Touch of Zen (King Hu, 1971)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">289. Deliverance (John Boorman, 1972)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">290. A Lizard in A Woman's Skin (Lucio Fulci, 1971)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">291. Kill Baby Kill (Mario Bava, 1966)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">292. Dr. Strange (Philip DeGuere, 1978)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">293. Don't Look Now (Nicolas Roeg, 1973)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">294. The Testament of Orpheus (Jean Cocteau, 1960)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">295. Meshes of the Afternoon (Maya Deren, 1943)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">296. Fireworks (Kenneth Anger, 1947)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">297. Invocation of My Demon Brother (Kenneth Anger, 1969) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">298. The Blood of A Poet (Jean Cocteau, 1932)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">299. The Human Tornado (Cliff Roquemore, 1976)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">300. May (Lucky McKee, 2002) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">301. The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan, 2008)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">302. The Last Temptation of Christ (Martin Scorcese, 1988) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">303. The Story of A Three-Day Pass (Melvin Van Peebles, 1968) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">304. Porcile (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1969)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">305. Silent Running (Douglas Trumbull, 1972)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">306. Casualties of War (Brian DePalma, 1989)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">307. Cobra Verde (Werner Herzog, 1987)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">308. Repulsion (Roman Polanski, 1965)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">309. Judex (Georges Franju, 1963)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">310. Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance (Kenji Misumi, 1972)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">311. Black Shampoo (Greydon Clark, 1976</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">312. Choose Me (Alan Rudolph, 1984) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">313. The Saragossa Manuscript (Wojciech Has, 1965)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">314. Gozu (Takashi Miike, 2003)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">315. New Rose Hotel (Abel Ferrara, 1998)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">316. Hero (Zhang Yimou, 2002)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">317. Mad Monster Party (Jules Bass, 1967) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">318. Q the Winged Serpent (Larry Cohen, 1982)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">319. The Belly of an Architect (Peter Greenaway, 1987</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">320. Clean (Olivier Assayas, 2004)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">321. Fando &amp; Lis (Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1968)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">322. Dirty Pretty Things (Stephen Frears, 2002)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">323. Onibaba (Kaneto Shindo, 1964)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">324. <span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Rosetta (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, 1999)</span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">325. </span>Descent (Talia Lugacy, 2007)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">326. Thor (Kenneth Branagh, 2011)</span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">327. Baby Doll (Elia Kazan, 1956)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">328. Golden Swallow (Chang Cheh, 1968)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">329. Jubilee (Derek Jarman, 1978)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">330. Superman: The Movie (Richard Donner, 1978)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">331. Repo Man (Alex Cox, 1984)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">332. The Man Who Fell to Earth (Nicolas Roeg, 1976). </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">333. Contraband (Lucio Fulci, 1980)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">334. Dragon Inn (Raymond Lee, 1992)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">335. Night of the Comet (Thom E. Eberhardt, 1984)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">336. Kanto Wanderer (Seijun Suzuki, 1963) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">337. A Bay of Blood (Mario Bava, 1971)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">338. Baba Yaga (Corrado Farina, 1973) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">339. Kiss Me Deadly (Robert Aldrich, 1955) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">340. Days of Being Wild (Wong Kar-wai, 1990)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">341. Murder My Sweet (Edward Dymytryk, 1944) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">342. The Wizard of Gore (Herschell Gordon Lewis, 1970) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">343. Prince of Darkness (John Carpenter, 1987)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">344. J.D.'s Revenge (Arthur Marks, 1976)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">345. Daughters of Darkness (Harry Kumel, 1971)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">346. Vampyres (Jose Larraz, 1974)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">347. Shiver of the Vampires (Jean Rollin, 197 ) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">348. Strange Hostel of Naked Pleasures (Marcelo Motta, Jose Mojica Marins, 1976) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">349. One on Top of the Other (Lucio Fulci, 1969)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">350. Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (Kenneth Anger, 1954)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">351. Female Convict Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 (Shunya Ito, 1972)</span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">352.The Lady Hermit (Meng Hua Ho, 1971)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">353. Sympathy for the Devil (Jean-Luc Godard, 1968)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">354. Five Dolls for an August Moon (Mario Bava, 1970)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">355. Blood Sabbath (Brianne Murphy, 1972)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">356. The Professionals (Richard Brooks, 1966)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">357. Lulu on the Bridge (Paul Auster, 1998)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">358. Danger: Diabolik (Mario Bava, 1968) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">359. In Cold Blood (Richard Brooks, 1967)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">360. Tetsuo: the Iron Man (Shinya Tsukamoto, 1989)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">361. Talk Radio (Oliver Stone, 1988)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">362. Looking for Mr. Goodbar (Richard Brooks, 1977)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">363. Flesh Gordon (Michael Benveniste, Howard Ziehm, 1974)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">364. The Patchwork Girl of Oz (J. Farrell MacDonald, 1914)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">365. A Boy and His Dog (L.Q. Jones, 1975)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">366. The Patchwork Girl of Oz (J. Farrell MacDonald, 1914)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">367. A Boy and His Dog (L.Q. Jones, 1975)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">368. Prospero's Books (1991) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">369. Puce Moment (Kenneth Anger, 1949)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">370. Return to Oz (Walter Murch, 1985)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">371. Lolita (Adrian Lyne, 1997)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">372. The Addiction (Abel Ferrara, 1995)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">373. Irma Vep (Olivier Assayas, 1996) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">374. Beauty and the Beast (Jean Cocteau, 1946)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">375. The Harder They Come (Perry Henzell, 1972) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">376. The Butterfly Ball (Tony Klinger, 1977)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">377. A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">378. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (Leonard Nim8y, 1986)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">379. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Nicholas Meyer, 1982)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">380. Un Chant D'Amour (Jean Genet, 1950) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">381. Tattooed Life (Seijun Suzuki, 1965)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">382. Chinese Box (Wayne Wang, 1997)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">383. The Devil's Rejects (Rob Zombie, 2005)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">384. Manhunter (Michael Mann, 1986)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">385. To Live and Die in LA (William Friedkin, 1985) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">386. Scanners (David Cronenberg, 1980)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">387. <span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Incredible Shrinking Man (Jack Arnold, 1957)</span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">388. The Brood (David Cronenberg, 1979)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">389. Hell of the Living Dead (Bruno Mattei, 1980)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">390.<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Return of the One-Armed Swordsman (Chang Cheh, 1969)</span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">391. </span>Eyes Without A Face (Georges Franju, 1960)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">392. </span>Take A Hard Ride (Antonio Margheriti, 1975)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">393. </span>The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1964)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">394. </span>The Mansion of Madness (Juan Lopez Moctezuma, 1973)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">395. </span>The Last Movie (Dennis Hopper, 1971) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">396. </span> Bury Me An Angel (Barbara Peeters, 1972)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">397. </span>Jungle Emperor Leo (Yoshio Takeuchi, 1997)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">398. </span>Harold and Maude (Hal Ashby, 1971)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">399. </span>Watership Down (Martin Rosen, 1978)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">400. </span>Dog Star Man (Stan Brakhage, 1962-1964) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">401. Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural (Richard Blackburn, 1973)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">402. Lost Highway (David Lynch, 1997)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">403. Joshua (Larry G. Spangler, 1976)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">404. Enter the Dragon (Robert Clouse, 1973)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">405. The Ice Storm (Ang Lee, 1997)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">406. Shadows (John Cassavettes, 1959)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">407. Angel Heart (Alan Parker, 1987)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">408. </span>Blazing Saddles (Mel Brooks, 1974)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">409. The Exorcist (William Friedkin, 1973)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">410. Koko, A Talking Gorilla (Barbet Schroeder, 1978) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">411. Hard Eight (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1996)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">412. Full Contact (Ringo Lam, 1992) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">413. The Stranger's Gundown (Sergio Garrone, 1969)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">414. Peace Hotel (Ka-Fai Wai, 1995)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">415. Zachariah (George Englund, 1971) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">416. Django Strikes Again (Nello Rosati, 1987)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">417. Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (Jim Jarmusch, 1999)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">418. The Night Stalker (John Llewellyn Moxey, 1972)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">419. Mr. Frost (Phillipe Setbon, 1990</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">420. Escape from New York (John Carpenter, 1981)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">421. Return of the Living Dead (Dan O'Bannon, 1985)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">422. The Velvet Vampire (Stephanie Rothman, 1971)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">423. Night Tide (Curtis Harrington, 1961)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">424. Gimme Shelter (Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin, 1970)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">425. Spasmo (Umberto Lenzi, 1974)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">426. Near Dark (Kathryn Bigelow, 1987)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">427. Gods and Monsters (Bill Condon, 1998)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">428. Sister Street Fighter (Kazuhiko Yamaguchi, 1974)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">429. Straight Time (Ulu Grosbard, 1978)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">430. The Honeymoon Killers (Leonard Kastle, 1969)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">431. Space Is the Place (John Coney, 1974)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">432. Throne of Blood (Akira Kurosawa, 1957)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">433. Bad Lieutenant (Abel Ferrara, 1992)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">434. Gambling City (Sergio Martino, 1975)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">435. Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper, 1969)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">436. La Encadenada (Manuel Mur Oti, 1975)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">437. The Glass Ceiling (Eloy de la Iglesia, 1971)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">438. Images (Robert Altman, 1972)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">439. The Haunted Palace (Roger Corman, 1963)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">440. Invitation to A Gunfighter (Richard Wilson, 1964)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">441. Down and Dirty Duck (Charles Swenson, 1974)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">442. Jane Eyre (Robert Stevenson, 1943)<br />443. Henry Fool (Hal Hartley, 1997)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">444. Ladies and Gentlemen The Fabulous Stains (Lou Adler, 1982)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">445. <span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Phantom of the Paradise (Brian DePalma, 1974)</span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">446. </span>Whore (Ken Russell, 1991)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">447. Baise-Moi (Virginie Despentes, Coralie, 2000) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">448. Short Eyes (Robert M Young, 1977) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">449. Casino (Martin Scorcese, 1995)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">450. American Psycho (Mary Harron, 2000)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">451. The Man in the Moon (Robert Mulligan, 1991)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">452. Gun Crazy (Joseph H Lewis, 1950)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">453. The Hawks and The Sparrows (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1966)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">454. It Lives Again (Larry Cohen, 1978)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">455. Assault on Precinct 13 (John Carpenter, 1976) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">456. Underworld Beauty (Seijun Suzuki, 1958)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">457. M*A*S*H (Robert Altman, 1970)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">458. Wizards (Ralph Bakshi, 1977)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">459. Battlestar Galactica (Richard A Colla, 1978) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">460. That Man Bolt (Henry Levin, David Lowell Rich, 1973)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">461. She-Devils on Wheels (Herschell Gordon Lewis, 1968) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">462. Fight Club (David Fincher, 1999)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">463. The Wages of Fear (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1953)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">464. Blackmail Is My Life (Kenji Fukasaku, 1968)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">465. Forbidden Planet (Fred M Wilcox, 1956)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">466. Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, 1957)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">467. Myra Breckinridge (Michael Sarne, 1970)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">468. Sick Girl (Lucky McKee, 2006)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">469. Vigilante (William Lustig, 1983)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">470. Deadly Sweet (Tinto Brass, 1967)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">471. Mannaja (Sergio Martino, 1977)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">472. Stray Dog (Akira Kurosawa, 1949)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">473. Frankenstein: The True Story (Jack Smight, 1973)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">474. Female Yakuza Tale (Teruo Ishii, 1973)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">475. No One Heard the Scream (Eloy de la Iglesia, 1973)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">476. Run, Man, Run! (Sergio Sollima, 1968)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">477. Suspiria (Dario Argento, 1977)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">478. The Punk Rock Movie (Don Letts, 1978)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">479. Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of A Serial Killer (Nick Broomfield, 1993)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">480. The Red Shoes<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">(Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1948)</span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">481. <span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Tenebrae (Dario Argento, 1982)</span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">482. </span>His Majesty the Scarecrow of Oz (L. Frank Baum, 1914)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">483.&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Aileen: The Life and Death of A Serial Killer (Nick Broomfield, 2003)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">484. <span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Oui, mais... (Yves Lavandier, 2001)</span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">485. Django, Kill! If You Live, Shoot! (Giulio Questi, 1967)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">486. Penitentiary (Jamaa Fanaka, 1979)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">487. Black Sabbath (Mario Bava, 1963)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">488. Female Trouble (John Waters, 1978)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">489. Polyester (John Waters, 190)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">490. Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood, 1992) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">491. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">492. <span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Bitter Tears of Petra van Kant (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1972) </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">493. Party Girl (Daisy von Scherler Mayer, 1995)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">494. Go (Doug Liman, 1999)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">495. Dogma (Kevin Smith, 1999)</span><br /><div align="LEFT" style="widows: 1;"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">496. Nerosubianco (Tinto Brass, 1969)</span></div><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">497. Eve's Bayou (Kassi Lemmons, 1997)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">498. Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning (Grant Harvey, 2004)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">499. Breaking In (Bill Forsyth, 1989)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">500. <span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Salo, Or the 120 Days of Sodom (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1975) </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">501. </span>The Doll Squad (Ted V Mikels, 1973)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">502. Amateur (Hal Hartley, 1994)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">503. Johnny Got His Gun (Dalton Trumbo, 1971)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">504. A Zed and Two Noughts (Peter Greenaway, 1985)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">505. The Kentucky Fried Movie (John Landis, 1977)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">506. <span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Demonlover (Olivier Assayas, 2002)</span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">507. <span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Irreversible (Gaspar Noe, 2002)</span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">508. Roseland (Fredric Hobbs, 1971) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">509. For A Few Dollars More (Sergio Leone, 1965)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">510. Mother, Jugs, &amp; Speed (Peter Yates, 1976)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">511. Case of the Bloody Iris (Giuliano Carmineo, 1972) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">512. Texas Adios (Ferdinando Baldi, 1966)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">513. </span>Akira (Katsuhiro Ohtomo, 1988)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">514. Gregory's Girl (Bill Forsyth, 1981)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">515. <span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Hannie Caulder (Burt Kennedy, 1971)</span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">516. What Have You Done to Solange? (Massimo Dallamano, 1972)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">517.<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Carrie (Brian DePalma, 1976)</span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">518. Beatrice Cenci (Lucio Fulci, 1969)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">519. Force of Evil (Abraham Polonsky, 1948)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">520. Werewolf Shadow (Leon Klimovsky, 1971) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">521. Ran (Akira Kurosawa, 1985)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">522. I Spit on Your Grave (Meir Zarchi, 1978)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">523. <span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Iron Man (Jon Favreau, 2008)</span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">524. La Dolce Vita (Federico Fellini, 1960)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">525. A Woman Under the Influence (John Cassavettes, 1974)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">526. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (Tobe Hooper, 1986) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">527. The Apostle (Robert Duvall, 1997)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">528. Apocalypse Now Redux (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">529. Mama und Papa (Kurt Kren, 1964)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">530. Ana (Kurt Kren, 1964)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">531. Romper Stomper (Geoffrey Wright, 1992)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">532. Rosemary's Baby (Roman Polanski, 2014)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">533. The Virgin Spring (Ingmar Bergman, 1960)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">534. The Last House on the Left (Wes Craven, 1972)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">535. Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat (Robert Taylor, 1974)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">536. The Pitfall (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1962)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">537. Woyczek (Werner Herzog, 1979)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">538. Sister Street Fighter: Hanging by A Thread (Kazuhiko Yamaguchi, 1974)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">539. Witch from Nepal (Siu-Tung Ching, 1985)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">540. Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, 1950)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">541. The Exterminating Angel (Luis Bunuel, 1962)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">542. The Long Hair of Death (Antonio Margheriti, 1964)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">543. Tombs of the Blind Dead (Armando de Ossorio, 1972)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">544. Web of the Spider (Antonio Margheriti, 1971)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">545. Targets (Peter Bogdanovich, 1968)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">546. Nightmare Castle (Mario Caiano, 1965)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">547. Fox and His Friends (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1975)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">548. <span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">La Grande Boufee (Marco Ferreri, 1973) </span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">549. Battles Without Honor &amp; Humanity (Kenji Fukasaku, 1973)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">550. The Pyjama Girl Case (Flavio Mogherini, 1977)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">551. <span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Spider Baby (Jack Hill, 1968)</span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">552. Electra Glide in Blue (James William Guercio, 1973)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">553. Sorcerer (William Friedkin, 1977) </span></span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">554. Jigoku (Nobuo Nakagawa, 1960)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">555. Un Chien Andalou (Luis Bunuel, 1929)</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I dedicate this list to fellow film fanatic friends Bill White, Sean Levin, Michael T Jones, and Scott "Vesbius Flestrin" Mosley. And, of course, to the wonderful woman who watches all this with me: Sarah L Covert.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Comments and brickbats welcome.</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span>Henry Coverthttps://plus.google.com/103990383640616339933noreply@blogger.com0